


\ 




































REPORT 



OF THE 



Survey of the Public School System 



OF 



School District No. 1, Multnomah County, Oregon 



Report of Committee 

Appointed at the Taxpayers' Meeting, 

held on December 27, 1912 






Submitted, November 1, 1913 






v<V 



I, OF D. 
APR 28 1914 






Personnel of the Survey 

COMMITTEE IN CHARGE. 
Mr. Richard W. Montague, Chairman. 
Mrs. Millie R. Trumrull. 
Mr. L. A. Lewis. 
Mr. J. A. Madsen. 
Mr. L. J. Goldsmith. 

SURVEY EXPERTS. 

Director of the Survey. 

Ellwood P. Cubberley, Professor of Education, Leland 
Stanford Jr. University, California. (General direction; Or- 
ganization; Administration; Teaching Force; Costs.) 

Associates on the Survey. 

Fletcher R. Dresslar, Professor of Education, Peabodj 
College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn. Formerly Expert on 
Schoolhouse Architecture and Sanitation for the United 
States Bureau of Education. (Schoolhouse Construction; 
Sanitation.) 

Edward C. Elliott, Professor of Education, University 
of Wisconsin. (Attendance; Census; Reports.) 

J. H. Francis, Superintendent of Schools, Los Angeles, 
California. (Vocational and Special Education.) 

Frank E. Spaulding, Superintendent of Schools, Newton, 
Massachusetts. (Courses of Instruction.) 

Lewis M. Terman, Associate Professor of Education, 
Leland Stanford Jr. University. (Health Supervision; Phys- 
ical Training.) 

Assistant for Statistical Work. 

William R. Tanner, Graduate Student, Leland Stanford 
Jr. University. 



Analytical Table of Contents of the Report 

Report of the Survey Committee XV 

Letter of transmittal, from the Director xviii 

REPORT OF THE SURVEY STAFF. 
PART I. ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 

Chap. I — The Legal Organization of the Portland School 

District 5 

State origin of schools — The school district and the 
municipality— Portland a first-class district— Advantages 
and disadvantages of state control — Need of a new city 
law — A city system, nevertheless. 

Chap. II — The Administrative Organization of the Port- 
land School District 10 

Co-ordination of authorities — The Board organization 
— Business department organization — Educational de- 
partment organization — Board meetings — The Board does 
too much — Types of business — This condition an in- 
heritance — Bad effects of the system — The way out — 
The supervision of instruction — Business department — 
Building department — The Board's proper functions — 
Good corporate management. 

Chap. Ill — The System of Supervision 27 

Importance of this topic — Weakness of the system 
found — Such conditions not inherent — Full efficiency not 
realized — Ultimate reasons for the condition — Character- 
istics of a good supervisory organization — Rules and reg- 
ulations and the system — Concrete illustrations; board 
control— Concrete illustrations; supervisory control — Re- 
sponsibility for the condition — Needed changes; recom- 
mendations. 

Chap. IV — The Selection and Tenure of Teachers 41 

1. The selection of teachers : 41 

Recruitment and training — Education of teach- 
ers employed — The training-course for teachers — 
Training vs. attracting teachers — The superintendent 
in the employment of teachers — The effect of Board 
control — Good rules of action; recommendations re- 
lating to employment. 

2. The tenure of teachers 51 

The new permanent-tenure law — A middle- 
ground position — Right principles of action relating 
to tenure. 



VI SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Chap. V — The Salaries of Teachers 57 

Comparative salary schedules — The Portland salaries 
— A uniform salary schedule — Types of teachers found — 
The Portland teaching force — Payments based on merit 
and efficiency; principles of action. 

PART II. INSTRUCTIONAL NEEDS. 

Chap. VI — The Social and Economic Position of Portland C9 
Sources of information — Cities selected for comparison 
— Size and rate of growth — Character of the population 
— Preponderance of males — Peculiar age distribution — 
Percentage of children — Business interests of the city — 
Wealth of the city — Costs for city maintenance — Rank of 
Portland in city expenditures. 

Chap. VII — The Educational Needs of Such a City 85 

General character of the city — Changes in our con- 
ception of education — Significance of the change — These 
new conceptions applied: 

1. The elementary school subjects 88 

Tool subjects — Content subjects — Science — Indi- 
vidual differences — Other features. 

2. Secondary education 90 

Coliege-preparatory subjects — Technical courses 
— Commercial and agricultural high schools. 

3. Public-school extension 92 

Portland's special educational opportunity — Its 
educational offering. 

Chap. VIII — The Present System of Elementary and Sec- 
ondary Instruction 94 

1. Fundamental principles 95 

Three working principles — Constant change nec- 
essary — Fundamental principles observed — A system 
for which no one is responsible — Purpose of the 
study constructive — What is a living curriculum? — 
What is a dead curriculum? — The system in opera- 
tion — The school for the deaf — Mechanical uniform- 
ity everywhere — Prescriptions of the course of study 
illustrated — Some characteristics of the course. 

2. The Portland elementary curriculum 97 

3. The subject-matter further anatyzed 106 

No adequate provision for the effective educa- 
tion of a iarge portion of the children — Grammar — 
Composition — Abstract arithmetic — Technical U. S. 
historv — Nature study. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS VII 

4. The system of promotional examinations Ill 

Nature of — Distorted efforts — Time spent on — 
What they do. 

5. The class-room instruction 113 

Work both good and poor — Grammar-grade 
work inferior to primary — Reading and composition 
poor — Penmanship poor and careless — Geography 
abstract and bookish — History dry and dull — Arith- 
metic and grammar the best taught. 

6. Deadening effect of the system 118 

On teachers — On pupils — On the principals — 
Why primary work better. 

7. Other elementary school needs 123 

Dearth of teaching material — Books should be 
furnished — Classes of commendable size — Discipline. 

8. The curriculum of the secondary school 125 

Extent and character of provisions made — In- 
crease in enrollment — Character of instruction — The 
courses of study — Teaching rather than educating 
youth — Uniformity throughout — This a barrier to 
progress — Cost of the examination system. 

9. Summary of the chief characteristics of the present 

system of elementary and secondary education. 132 

Chap. IX — Outline of an Educational Program Adapted to 

Local Educational Needs 135 

1. Point of view and purpose of study 135 

Facing the future — What is Portland's educa- 
tional problem? — The first step — Character of the 
program projected. 

2. Seven factors determining the grouping of children 139 

3. The significance of age, and overage 139 

Children under six educable — How wide an age- 
range advantageous — Ten per cent of pupils need 
reclassification — Some causes of overage — Overage 
in the Portland schools — Necessary treatment and 
study. 

4. The other factors, determining grouping 146 

Length of instruction — To fit for usefulness — 
Capacity and interests — The non-English child — Ab- 
normal and subnormal children — Sex as an influ- 
ence. 

5. Four main groups, or types of schools 152 

(a) The Kindergarten — Cost of — Should be 
provided in time 154 



VIII SCHOOL SURVEY BE P ORT 

(b) Elementary schools — Subjects to be in- 
cluded — Desirable and essential distinguished 156 

(c) Intermediate schools — This stage calls for 
differentiations — L iterary and pre-vocational 
courses — -Work adapted to individual needs, capaci- 
ties, and interests 160 

(d) The secondary school — Preparatory and 
vocational courses of wide range — Courses must be 
flexible — Tests for promotions — Demands of such a 
flexible plan 163 

6. Summary of recommendations 167 

Chap. X — The Present Offering of the School District 
in Vocational Studies, with Suggestions for Improve- 
ments 170 

1. Prominent shortcomings in the elementary school 

work 170 

2. The vocational studies of the elementary school 

course 171 

(a) Primary manual arts — Nature of the work 172 

(b) Manual training— Commendable features of 
the work — Defects observed — Improvements sug- 
gested 173 

(c) Sewing — Commendable features — Defects — 
Suggestions 174 

(d) Cookery — Its absence a mistake — Sugges- 
tions 175 

(e) Drawing — The present course — Changes 
suggested 176 

(f) Music — Defects of the work — Suggestions. 177 

(g) School gardening— Why the schools should 
assume this work — Need for a supervisor — Impor- 
tance of for Portland 178 

3. The vocational studies in the secondary schools.... 180 
Characteristics of the work in the high schools. 

(a) The commercial course — Traditional na- 
ture — Criticisms of the work done — Suggestions for 

a reconstruction of the work in the schools 180 

(b) The work in Drawing — Defects — Lack of 
proper provision for — Suggestions for the improve- 
ment and expansion of the work 182 

(c) Shop equipment, and its distribution — The 
special vs. the cosmopolitan high school 183 

(d) Domestic art — Good work done 184 

(e) Domestic science — Good work in cooking 

— Additions 184 



TABLE OF CONTENTS IX 

4. The School of Trades 185 

Strength and defects of the work done — Recom- 
mendations for its improvement. 

5. An agricultural high school recommended 186 

6. Summary, and recommendations 186 

Chap. XI — Needed Reorganization and Expansions of the 

School System 189 

1. A fundamental reorganization needed 189 

(a) Kindergartens — Relation to first grade 
work 189 

(b) Elementary schools — The prime purpose 
during the first six years 189 

(c) Intermediate schools — Character of — Loca- 
tion — Ruildings — Costs — Purposes — ■ Advantages — 
Teachers — Opposition to — Courses of study 189 

(d) High schools — Enlarged scope of 198 

2. Types of additional schools needed 199 

(a) The ungraded room — Purposes — Value.... 199 

(b) Truant schools — Classes intended for — Ad- 
vantages of — Graduation to a central vocational 
school 201 

(c) Vacation schools — Types of — Purposes... 202 

(d) Night schools; school entertainments — The 
school a center — Recommendations — The night high 
schools 203 

(e) Extension of the school time — Longer days 

— Saturday mornings for vocational work 205 

(f) Special art schools 206 

(g) Neighborhood, or district schools — Scope 

of such schools — Work and purposes 206 

(h) A school for janitors 208 

3. Summary of recommendations 209 

PART III. BUILDINGS AND HEALTH. 

Chap. XII— The Buildings and Sites Problem 213 

Portland's building problem — Rapid increase in 
school population — Recent increase in building outlays 
— Shifting of population — Probable future needs — Size of 
school lots — Larger playgrounds needed — The high 
schools — The best buildings — The safest buildings — The 
most economical buildings— Paying for by tax or by 
bonding. 



X SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Chap. XIII— The School Plant 229 

Construction units — The school-house site — Noisy 
streets — Orientation of buildings — East and west lighting 
— Unilateral lighting — Windows — Ribbed and frosted 
glass — Transoms — Size of classrooms— Height of class- 
rooms — Floors — Small desks— Blackboards — Stair banis- 
ters — Assembly rooms — Floating ceilings — Open-air 
schools — Temperature of rooms — Hot-air furnaces — Ven- 
tilation of rooms — Fresh-air intakes — Registers — Toilets 
and urinals Baths — Vacuum cleaners — Drinking foun- 
tains — Slates— Janitor service — Miscellaneous recommen- 
dations — Advisory educational committee on buildings. 

Chap. XIV — Medical Inspection; Hygiene Teaching; Physi- 
cal Training; Special Schools for Defectives 254 

1. The system of medical inspection 254 

Two types of medical service — Main features of 
the Portland system — Nature of the examinations 
given. 

2. Defects of the system 257 

Results secured — Records and reports — Limited 
scope of the work. 

3. Essential features of a department of health super- 

vision for a city such as Portland 261 

Control — The force needed — Expense — Chief 
health director — Offices and equipment — Dental clinic 
— Medical clinic — School nurses — The teacher in 
health supervision. 

4. Open-air schools 266 

5. School feeding 268 

6. The health of the teaching corps 269 

7. Hygiene teaching 270 

8. Physical training and playground equipment 270 

9. The hygiene of instruction 272 

10. Special classes needed 272 

Deaf — Blind and crippled — Stammerers — Back- 
ward children — Costs for — Borderline cases — Feeble- 
minded — Truants and incorrigibles — Misfits. 

11. Summary of recommendations 276 

PART IV. ATTENDANCE; RECORDS; COSTS. 

Chap. XV — Census and Attendance 281 

1. Census: General — Legal provisions concerning — 
Plan of taking — Instructions to enumerators — 
Method of enumeration — Cost and report — Census 
data — Critical statement— Need of a permanent 
and continuous census — Enumerators — Cost — 
Report of census returns 281 



TABLE OF CONTENTS XI 

2. Compulsory Education: Legal provisions concern- 
ing — Enforcement of school attendance — Records 
and reports — Truant officer's record — Critical 
comment — Recommendations 287 

Chap. XVI — Records and Reports 294 

Record of Board proceedings — The Annual Report 
— Contents of — Functions of an annual report — Record 
forms and blanks — Fundamental educational records 
needed — Financial records — Recommendations — Records 
and report forms in use. 

Chap. XVII — Costs of the System of Education 303 

A fundamental assumption — 

1. Relative rank of the school district in school 

expenditures — Comparative per capita costs 
— Children in the population — Costs per 
adult male — Costs per pupil educated — Com- 
parisons for elementary schools — For sec- 
ondary schools — The bearing of small classes 
— Reasonable per capita costs 304 

2. Real wealth behind each dollar spent for 

schools — Comparative rates of tax required 
— Portland's educational opportunity — Pres- 
ent condition of Portland's school system, 
and its needs 310 

Appendix A. A Suggested New Law for the Management 

of the Portland School District 314 



XII SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



List of Tables in Report 

Table. Page 

1. Number of teachers and supervisors employed 41 

2. Education of teachers employed in Portland 42 

3. Comparative salarj r schedules in western cities 57 

4. Size and rate of growth of selected cities 70 

5. Composition of the population in 37 selected cities 72 

6. Percentage of males in the total population 74 

7. Percentage of males who are married 75 

8. Percentage of children in the total population 77 

9. Percentage of the population engaged in manufacture 78 

10. Assessed and real wealth per capita of the population 80 

11. Rate of tax for city and school maintenance 81 

12. Per capita cost for city maintenance 82 

13. Rank of Portland in items of city expenditure 83 

14. Showing the elementary course of study in Portland. ... 99 

15. Showing the secondary school courses in Portland 127 

16. Age distribution in certain grades 141 

17. Overage children in the Portland schools 143 

18. Age and grade distribution for the three high schools.. 144 

19. Pupils two years or more over age, in certain schools. . . 145 

20. Showing classification of the children of the district. . 153 

21. Courses of study for intermediate schools 196 

22. Size of school sites in Portland 219 

23. Additional costs for buildings under bonding 227 

24. Health officers' monthly reports 259 

25. Truant officer's records, 1912-13 289 

26. Cost for schools per capita total population 304 

27. Cost for schools per capita over 15 305 

28 Cost for schools per adult male 306 

29. Cost for elementary schools per pupil 308 

30. Cost for secondary schools per pupil 308 

31. Real wealth behind each dollar spent 310 

32. Comparative tax rates for schools 311 



TABLE OF CONTENTS XIII 



List of Figures in Report 

Figure. Page. 

1. Map of Portland, showing city and school district 

boundaries 5 

2. Present administrative organization of the Portland 

school district 11 

3. Proper organization and relationships 22 

4. The elements of Portland's population 73 

5. Age distribution of the population 76 

6. The agricultural center of Oregon 79 

7. How Portland spends its dollar 84 

8. Age distribution in the elementary schools, by grades. 150 

9. Showing recent rapid increase in school population... 214 

10. Showing large recent expenditures for sites and build- 

ings 216 

11. Proper window placing in a classroom 233 



COMMITTEE REPORT XV 



Report of Survey Committee 

The survey covered by this report had its beginning in a 
resolution introduced by Mr. W. B. Ayer and passed at the reg- 
ular annual meeting of the voters of School District No. 1, 
Multnomah County, Oregon, held on December 27, 1912, in the 
following terms : 

"Whereas, the average dailv attendance at the public schools 
of this district has increased from 10,387 in 1902, to 23,712 in 
1912, and the annual disbursements have increased during the 
same period from $420,879.61 to $2,490,477.28; and 

"Whereas, it is of the utmost importance that the public 
schools should be kept at the highest point of efficiency, it is 
hereby declared to be the sense of this meeting that a full and 
complete survey be made of the public school system of this dis- 
trict, comprising: — 

1. The location, type, character, and condition of existing 
school houses, and the estimated cost and type of future buildings; 

2. Of the organization and methods of administration; 

3. Of the form and manner of instruction; 

4. The courses of study and the quality of the text-books; 

5. The extent and need of playgrounds and gymnasiums; 

6. The development of domestic science, manual training, 
trade, agricultural and horticultural schools; 

7. The salaries of teachers and other employees; 

8. The method and system of accounting; 

9. The form of organization, and the examination ot the 
school laws of the state, as applied to this district; 

10. Of the average cost per pupil in comparison with other 
cities; and, 

11. Of the scientific method of raising the required reve- 
nue, either by direct taxation or the issuance of bonds, or both; 

Therefore, be it resolved, that a committee consisting of 

Mr. Richard W. Montague, 

Mrs. Millie R. Trumbull, 

Mr. L. A. Lewis, 

Mr. J. A. Madsen, 

Mr. L. J. Goldsmith, 
is hereby appointed to make a full and complete survey of every 
phase of the public school system of this district, said committee 
to serve without pay, but they are authorized and empowered 
to employ such expert investigators as may in their judgment 
seem necessary; and the directors of this district are hereby 
authorized and directed to apportion to the expense of said com- 
mittee a sum not in excess of $7,500.00, which sum shall be paid 
to the treasurer of said committee on the written order of the 
chairman and secretary thereof. Said committee shall have power 
to fill any vacancies that may occur in their membership, and 
shall report to the directors and taxpayers of this district their 
recommendations, together with all reports received and expen- 
ditures made by them." 

Some question having arisen as to the power of the voters 
of the District to appropriate moneys to be expended for a spe- 



XVI SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

cific purpose, the Board of Directors of the District at its meet- 
ing of January 22, 1913, set the question at rest by passing the 
following resolution : 

"Resolved, that the Board of School Directors does hereby 
appoint Richard W. Montague, Mrs. Millie R. Trumbull, L. A. 
Lewis, J. A. Madsen, and L. J. Goldsmith to make a survey of 
the public schools of this district, in conformity with a resolu- 
tion adopted at the annual school meeting held in the Lincoln 
High School, December 27, 1912, as follows: (Here follows the 
resolution then adopted), and that the committee present to the 
Board for payment all vouchers of the expense incurred in car- 
rying into effect the terms of the resolution." 

Under this grant of authority the task was undertaken. The 
Committee was clear from the outset that a survey, to be of any 
value, must be made Dy professional school men, and that the 
functions of the committee ought to be confined to the selec- 
tion and employment of qualified experts to do the required 
work as thoroughly as possible within the limits of the appro- 
priation. From all accessible sources the names of the edu- 
cators in the United States best informed and of the best 
judgment in the matter of school surveys were sought, and letters 
were addressed to a large number asking for their views as to the 
proper scope and method of the proposed survey and for recom- 
mendations as to the persons best qualified to do the work. It 
may be remarked in passing that there was remarkable agreement 
among all those consulted on the latter point, and the work of 
the committee was thereby much simplified. At this stage of its 
inquiries the committee had and profited by personal interviews 
with George D. Straj^er, professor of educational administration 
at Columbia University, who happened to be in the West on work 
of this character, and with President Foster and Professor Sisson 
of Reed College, from all of whom the committee received very 
valuable advice and suggestions. Not only to these, but to the 
many who replied to our letters the committee has to express 
cordial thanks. The disinterested spirit of public service shown 
by these men in giving freely to the committee of their valuable 
time and invaluable knowledge and experience, without thought 
of recompense, is beyond praise. The letters we received, taken 
together, constitute a discussion of the problems of school sur- 
veys and the related questions of highest value. 

Among a considerable number of educators of high qualifi- 
cations considered, the choice of the committee finally fell upon 
the authors of the accompanying report, whose names and pro- 
fessional occupations are set forth on a preceding page. Their 
report must speak for itself. The opinion, favorable or other- 
wise, of a committee of laymen as to its quality would have no 
weight with the judicious, but we cannot refrain from a word 



COMMITTEE REPORT XVII 

of commendation for the capable, fearless and energetic way in 
which the work was prosecuted, nor from recording the convic- 
tion that our choice was singularly fortunate. 

The report is presented precisely as it came from the authors, 
the understanding from the first having been that it would be 
submitted without editing, adding or suppressing. The original 
resolution requires the committee to present its recommenda- 
tions, but the same reasons which obtain for the making of the 
report by experts have equal weight against the offering of de- 
tailed recommendations by the committee. 

One recommendation, however, we have to make with all 
possible earnestness, and that is that the report receive the con- 
siderate attention of all officers, parents and thoughtful citizens 
of the district. In view of the prime importance and unques- 
tionable wisdom of many of the suggestions of the report we 
believe that their execution ought not to be lost sight of, and we 
take the liberty to recommend further that a committee be ap- 
pointed by the coming taxpayers' meeting to consider how far 
the recommendations of the report have been, are being, or can 
be carried into effect. The effort to bring our schools up to the 
highest pitch of efficiency, with the means available, should 
never be allowed to fail nor falter. We submit this report in the 
hope that it may bring home to all of us that the schools are 
maintained to fit the children for life, and are only successful 
insofar as that end is kept steadily in view, and that it may bear 
fruit in increased devotion by all of us to our supreme duty to 
give our children the means and opportunity of being wiser and 
better men and women. 

Respectfully submitted, 

RICHARD W. MONTAGUE, 
MILLIE R. TRUMRULL, 
L. A. LEWIS, 
J. A. MADSEN, 
L. J. GOLDSMITH, 

Survey Committee. 



XVIII SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Director's Letter of Transmittal 

Mr. Richard W. Montague, Chairman of the Taxpayers' Commit- 
tee, Portland, Oregon. 
Dear Sir: 

I have the honor to submit herewith to you, for your com- 
mittee, the final report of' the Survey of the public school system 
of School District No. 1, Multnomah County, Oregon, the same 
being what is commonly known as the school system of the City 
of Portland. 

The final report is the work of my associates and myself, 
and the proper credit for chapters written by my associates is 
indicated by prefatory notes, or some other designation at the 
beginning of each chapter. When no such credit is indicated, 
the writing of the chapter was done by myself. 

While individual members of the Survey thus took particu- 
lar charge of certain aspects of the work and drafted certain 
chapters, I think that I may safely say for the other members, 
and certainly can for myself, that the report, as submitted, rep- 
resents the combined judgment of all of those who worked on 
the survey. I was in Portland at the time each of my associates 
arrived, and started him and for a time worked with him on the 
survey. Conferences were held daily, and before each group left 
Portland, final conferences were held at which the main con- 
clusions were agreed upon. In this way the work was under 
constant discussion, and the results of the daily observations of 
each man were presented to the other members. Since the chap- 
ters were written, those in Parts I and II have been exchanged 
among those who worked on these two parts, and approved by 
all. The same is true for all chapters in Part III. The facts and 
needs of the system were so plain, the system was characterized 
by such uniformity, and the supervisory conditions and needs 
were so evident to all, that an agreement on the general criti- 
cisms and recommendations to be embodied in the report was 
easily reached. 

Aside from certain preliminary work which I did during the 
two days I was in Portland in March, the work of the Survey 
really began with the coming of Superintendent Spaulding and 
myself on April 6. Other members of the Survey staff came 
later — Professor Dresslar on May 10, Superintendent Francis on 
May 17, Professor Terman on May 19, and Professor Elliott on 
May 25 — each remaining long enough to gather the necessary 
data and to complete his part of the local work. The time spent 
by each varied from one to three weeks. I was in Portland dur- 
ing the time each of the men was there, and worked with them. 
The statistical clerk for the survey, Mr. Tanner, spent a month 
in Portland, making tests in the schools and tabulating statisti- 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL XIX 

cal information for the use of the Survey staff. The field work 
in Portland was completed the first week in June, and the months 
of June and July were spent in formulating the report. 

Naturally, in such a short time, not every one of the sixty 
schools could be visited, and but a relatively small number of the 
over eight hundred teachers could be seen at work. Professor 
Dresslar, in his survey of the school buildings, visited all but two 
or three of the schools of the district; and almost every school 
principal was seen and questioned by some one of the Survey, 
as to the organization and administration of the school system. 
Beyond this either selected schools, typical of the different edu- 
cational conditions found, were visited and studied in some de- 
tail (Spaulding), or studies of type forms of instruction were 
made (Francis, Terman). It was the common judgment of the 
different members of the Survey, and is so stated by three in 
their written reports, that the school system was characterized 
by so great a uniformity that no detailed study of many of the 
schools was necessary. What was attempted was to make such 
a survey as would enable us to state the nature of the work done, 
the actuating motives and spirit of the work, and the present 
and future needs of the system. 

While of necessity this report must at times be critical, such 
has not been our main purpose. Had we desired to offer merely 
a critical report, or to summarize the merits and defects and 
cast up a balance, and stop with such, the task would have been 
much easier, and the report would have been much shorter. On the 
contrary, we have tried, instead, to outline a constructive pro- 
gram for the improvement and development of your school sys- 
tem, and have used criticisms only as a basis upon which to 
build. Such criticisms as are made, too, it is hoped will not be 
taken as personal by anyone, as they describe a condition rather 
than individuals. In particular we do not wish the report to 
be taken, in any sense, as a personal criticism of the outgoing 
superintendent or of the board of school directors, as we feel 
that the city owes much to the very faithful services of both. 
Your school system, despite its defects, is still above the average 
in worth. 

Your city, though, is not an average city, your people are not 
average people, in particular your present and future educational 
needs are not average needs, and your educational possibilities 
are not average possibilities, and the time is now at hand when 
your school department ought to be transformed from a some- 
what passive organization into an active, energetic institution, 
working for the improvement of all the conditions surrounding 
the life and work of your people. Some of the means for accom- 
plishing this we have tried to point out in this report. 

My associates on the Survey wish me to express for them, 
and I do also for myself, our appreciation of the courteous and 



XX SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

helpful assistance rendered us by the members of the Board of 
School Directors, the entire office force at the administration of- 
fices, the principals and the teachers. Mr. Sabin, Mr. Rigler, Mr. 
Thomas and yourself should be singled out for special mention. 
Mr. L. H. Weir, field secretary of the Playground and Recreation 
Association of America, was also very kind in allowing me to 
read and to make some extracts for my notes from his unpub- 
lished survey of the play and recreation activities and facilities 
of your city. 

Respectfully submitted, 

ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY, 

Director of the Survey. 

Stanford University, Cal., August 20, 1913. 



Report of the Survey Staff 




PART I 

Organization and Administration 



CHAP. I. LEGAL ORGANIZATION 



Chapter I 

THE LEGAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PORTLAND SCHOOL 

DISTRICT. 

State Origin of Schools 

What is known as School District No. 1, of Multnomah 
County, Oregon, and commonly known as the Portland school 
district, is a state, and not a city creation and organization. Un- 
like the street or fire departments, or the park board, which are 
provided for in the city charter and are distinctively city insti- 
tutions, the school department owes its origin to the state con- 
stitutional mandate and to the state's laws relating to education. 
The first provisional government for the Oregon country (1845) 
declared that "schools and means of education should be en- 
couraged," and the constitution on which the territory entered 
the Union, framed in 1857, directed that "the Legislative Assem- 
bly shall provide by law for the establishment of a uniform and 
general system of common schools" for the state. To assist in 
the maintenance of such a state school system a state school fund 
was also created, and its use and method of distribution were 
provided for in the new constitution. 

Under this authority the Legislature has since created a 
state school system. A State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion and a State Board of Education have been provided for, to 
look after the interests of the state in the matter of education; 
a body of School Law, controlling the school system in detail, 
has since been gradually evolved; and County School Super- 
intendents and District School Directors have been created, to 
see that the state purpose is carried out locally. 

The School District and the Municipality 

The school district has been made the unit of educational 
organization by the state, and the districts have been declared 
by law to be "bodies corporate, competent to transact all busi- 
ness coming under their jurisdiction." The boundaries of the 
school districts are controlled by a county board, known as the 
district boundary board, and the distinct organization of a school 
district is shown by the provision that its boundaries may be 
different from those of a municipality of which it forms a part, 
and that it may even lie in two counties. This difference for 
Portland is well shown by Figure 1, to be found on the next 
page, which shows the city and school-district boundary lines 
as they were early in 1913. Even when the boundaries of a 
school district are one and the same as those of a municipal 
corporation, the intent of the law, and the decisions of the courts 
in a number of states, are that the school district is a separate 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



and distinct corporation from the municipality, and created for 
a different purpose. The municipality exists largely for local 



map or 

PORTLAND 




FIG 1. CITY AND SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARIES COMPARED 



ends; the school district exists largely for the carrying out of a 
state purpose. 

Portland a First-Class District 

In carrying out this state purpose the State of Oregon, for 
convenience in granting powers, has classified the different 
school districts of the state into three classes. The first class, 
to which Portland belongs, comprises all school districts in the 
state having 1000 or more children of school-census (4 to 20 
years) age. Such districts, largely because of their size and the 
larger volume of their business, are allowed to elect five School 
Directors, instead of the three provided for other districts; may 
appoint a Clerk, outside of their own membership; may employ 
a superintendent of schools; may prescribe their own courses of 
study; may examine their own teachers; may provide evening 



CHAP. I. LEGAL ORGANIZATION 



schools; and may create an indebtedness. In 1911 all school dis- 
tricts having 10,000 or more school children were permitted to 
create a Teachers' Retirement Fund, and in 1913 all school dis- 
tricts having 20,000 or more school children were permitted to 
establish and maintain many types of special schools, and to 
adopt their own text-books. 

All of these powers, though, come from the state and not 
from the city, and all of these powers would apply to any school 
district in the state of the same class or size. The district is 
numbered and takes its legal name from the county and state 
organization; its powers all come from the state; it could be 
changed in form or purpose at any time by the state; and it exists 
primarily for the carrying out of a purpose which our American 
states long ago decided to be in the interests of the state. What- 
ever the state decides to be wise, in the matter of public educa- 
tion, it can thus order the Portland school district to do or to 
provide. The provision of education for its children is thus not 
left to local desire or local initiative, as is the case with street 
lights or sidewalks, but is required by the state in the exercise of 
its inherent right of preservation and improvement. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of State Control 

This fact has its disadvantages, as well as its advantages. 
It is much more likely that Portland will desire to advance more 
rapidly than the state, in extending its educational system, than 
that the state will outstrip Portland. This will mean that Port- 
land will be compelled, from time to time, to secure the permis- 
sion of the legislature of the state before it can make much- 
needed educational advancement. For example, until the pres- 
ent time the Portland school district has been compelled to use 
the uniform state series of text-books in its elementary schools, 
though these were adopted with the needs of the rural schools 
in view and were, in the judgment of the members of the Survey 
staff, in a number of cases wholly unsuited to the needs of any 
modern educational system. It would be hard to conceive of any 
city, with a modern educational organization, using such books 
as were forced on the city by the state. Another illustration is 
the retention, in a city of 250,000 inhabitants, of the old, out- 
grown and in many states entirely abandoned system of holding 
an annual meeting of taxpayers of the school district to levy the 
annual school tax and to make needed appropriations for the 
schools. The only thing the meeting could do with any safety 
would be to follow the judgment of the Directors, and if this is 
to be done there is no wisdom in holding the meeting. We were 
told that the tax is frequently voted by a mere handful of citi- 
zens. Such a situation is fraught with constant danger. If, for 
any cause, antagonisms should arise, it would be easily possible 
for a very few people to quietly appear and defeat the tax, and 



8 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

thus imperil the work of the schools for a year to come. A city 
the size of Portland should be given legislative permission to 
abandon this outgrown country-school provision, and to substi- 
tute instead a modern method for levying the school taxes. 

The state oversight and control has its advantages and dis- 
advantages, also, in that it permits interested parties to appeal 
from the decision of the elected representatives of the school dis- 
trict and secure legislation of a kind which suits them. An 
illustration on the good side would be laws compelling the Board 
of School Directors of the district to establish vacation schools, 
to introduce instruction in domestic science, to provide proper 
playground facilities, or to establish proper sanitary conditions 
and health supervision. A good illustration on the other side is 
the 1913 life-tenure-of-teachers bill, which is considered more 
in detail in Chapter IV, and which was secured from an unthink- 
ing legislature by representatives of the elementary teachers of 
the city. Probably no legislation has ever been enacted in the 
history of the Portland school district which is more calculated 
ultimately to destroy the efficiency of the school system. 

Need of a New City Law 

The legal organization surrounding the Portland school dis- 
trict is in part a village organization, and the district needs a 
new educational charter. This could be secured in the form of 
a general law, applicable to any city in the state having 20,000 or 
more school children. The method of election, size, and organi- 
zation of the Board of School Directors are along good lines, in 
that such provide for a continuing body and permit of a con- 
tinuing educational policy, and would best remain as they are. 
The law should in addition provide for a good modern educa- 
tional organization for such a city, and should specify the main 
powers of the Board, the Superintendent of Schools, the Super- 
intendent of Properties and the Clerk or Secretary. Certain pow- 
ers and duties should be guaranteed to each, and they should be 
safeguarded in the exercise of them by law. The right of the 
district to make its own courses of study, to adopt its own text- 
books, to set its own requirements for entering the teaching ser- 
vice, to contract with its own teachers, and to establish such 
schools and such types of educational activity as seem needed, 
should be included in the law as a matter of course. The right 
to determine the rate or the amount of school taxes to be levied, 
up to certain maxima, for buildings, equipment and annual main- 
tenance, ought to be given to the Board of School Directors alone, 
and with the further right to submit the question to a vote of the 
people if, in their judgment, still larger sums are needed to meet 
emergencies or special educational needs. 

In the Appendix to this Report (Appendix A), a suggested 
state law for the reorganization of the Portland school district, 



CHAP. I. LEGAL ORGANIZATION 



along good administrative lines, is given. This proposed law is 
based in part on the present laws now in force, and in part on 
the best experience of those American cities which have recently 
secured a good administrative law for the management of their 
schools. 

A City System, Nevertheless 

While the Portland school district thus has a distinct legal 
organization, separate from the municipality of which it forms 
a part, and derives its powers from the state rather than from the 
city, the schools are nevertheless city schools, and should pri- 
marily answer the city's needs. That education which is best 
suited to the needs of such a city will best answer the state pur- 
pose in requiring the maintenance of schools. The character of 
the population of Portland, the social and educational demands 
of its people, its actual and per-capita wealth, and the industrial 
and commercial needs of the present and future city, all serve 
to modify the character of the school system which should be 
maintained and the type or types of education which should be 
provided. As the city grows in size, and its social and educa- 
tional problems increase in complexity, the state should grant 
increasing liberty to the city to enable it to meet its peculiar 
educational needs. What the state should be primarily inter- 
ested in is that certain minimum standards should be met, and 
not in limiting new efforts of communities. A too-rigid inter- 
pretation of the old constitutional clause providing for "a uni- 
form and general system of schools" for the state, or a too great 
interference by the legislature in matters largely local by nature, 
can in part defeat the very object for which the educational sys- 
tem was established. In the case of Portland the legislature 
should provide the city with a legal organization suited to mod- 
ern needs, after some such a plan as is suggested in Appendix A, 
and then refuse to interfere except in matters of fundamental 
importance. 



10 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Chapter II 

THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF THE PORTLAND 
SCHOOL DISTRICT. 

Co-ordination of Authorities 

The Portland school district thus exists in obedience to state 
law, and its form and its powers are alike derived from the state. 
To carry out this state purpose of education, for such children 
as live within the boundaries of the Portland school district, the 
state has provided for the election, by the property holders of 
the school district, of a board of five School Directors. One new 
member is elected each year, for a five-year term, and on a day 
set by law for the annual school meeting of the district. The 
main powers of the Board so elected come from the Legislature, 
and have been formulated in the school law of the state. The 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the County Su- 
perintendent of Schools interpret this law, and apportion to the 
district its proportionate share of the income from the state 
permanent school fund, and from the county school tax. The 
County Boundary Board regulates the boundaries of the school 
district, as for all other districts within the county. The County 
Superintendent of Schools sits as a member of the district (city) 
Board of Examiners, for the examination and certification of 
all teachers for the school district. 

The Board Organization 

The Board of School Directors so elected is charged with the 
maintenance of the schools required by law within the district. 
In carrying out this purpose they not only meet as a body, but 
have also subdivided themselves into eight committees for fur- 
ther work. The work of maintaining the schools is also further 
organized under two main departments, practically independent 
of one another — one for the business work, under the School 
Clerk; and one for the educational work, under the Superintend- 
ent of Schools. These relationships are well shown in the dia- 
gram, given on the opposite page. 

An examination of this diagram, and a comparison of this 
diagram with the one given on page 22, showing a desirable re- 
organization, will prove both interesting and instructive. In 
Figure 2 the independence of the two main administrative de- 
partments, as well as the lack of co-ordination of the different 
city departments working at the educational problem, is seen; 
in Figure 3, on page 22, the unified educational organization is 
the prominent feature. 



CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 



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12 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Business Department Organization 
The business department, as organized under the School 
Clerk, is further subdivided, as follows: 



/ Secretary. 
' Truant Officei 



Cashier, 



Purchasing 
Agent. 



SCHOOL 
CLERK. 



Bookkeeper. 
Assistant Bookkeeper. 
Checking Clerk. 
Head Stenographer. 
Assistant Stenographer. 
Filing Clerk. 
Telephone Operator. 



Storekeeper. 
Delivery Man. 



Stenographer. 



Superintend- 
ent of 
Properties. 



Office Boy. 



Chief Draftsman. 



Inspector of Grounds 
and Buildings. 

Supervisor of Electrical 
and Mechanical Plant. 



Two Draftsmen. 
Structural Engineer. 

Heating and Ventilatii 
Engineer. 



Carpenter Foreman. 
Mechanics. 



|i 



Plumber. 
Mechanics. 



Janitors. 



This department seemed well organized, and quite efficiently 
managed throughout. The work seemed to be handled both ex- 
peditiously and economically, and an examination of the meth- 
ods and forms used seemed to indicate that fairly good business 
methods were employed. (See criticism of reports and forms 
in Chapter XVI.) In the judgment of the different members 
of the Survey staff, this department seemed to be the better 
organized and more efficiently managed of the two. This is 
perhaps only natural, as its work is perfectly definite, the prin- 
ciples of good business organization are well known, the per- 
sonal element plays a much less important part, and efficiency 
in service is much easier to obtain and to maintain. It is the 
part, too, which the Board of School Directors are most capable 
of properly organizing and supervising; it is the part that, both 



CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 



13 



by training and experience, they are best able to understand; 
and there is a constant tendency on the part of Boards to, ^over- 
emphasize the importance of this side of the school organization. 
As the books of the School Clerk are carefully audited each 
year, the honesty of the business office was assumed, and no at- 
tempt "was made to check up the finances or expenditures of the 
district. The annual financial reports are made according to the 
forms recommended for use by the United States Census Bureau 
and the United States Bureau of Education, which is com- 
mendable. 

Educational Department Organization 

The educational department, as organized under the Super- 
intendent of Schools, is as follows: 



** Two Assistant 
Superintendents, 
for General 
Supervision. 



One Assistant 
Superintendent 
for Special 
and Vocational 
Education. 



Office 
Assistants. 



Special 
Supervisors. 



Principals 

of 

Schools. 



Principals 
of Special 
Schools. 



Clerks. 

Stenographer. 
Telephone 
Operator. 



Music. 

Drawing. 

Manual 

Training. 

Domestic 

Science. 

Sewing. 

Physical 

Training. 

Elementary 



High 
Schools. 



Teachers. 



Asst. 
Super- 
visors. 



\ Special 
/ Teachers 
\ (Manual 
/ Training). 



Vice- 
Principals. 
Teachers. 
Pupil Trs. and 
Substitutes. 

Heads of 
Depts. 
Assistant 
Teachers. 



School of f Day 



Trades. 

Evening 
Schools. 

Summer 
Schools. 



Evening. 

f High. 

*• Elementary. 

i High. 

J Elementary. 

1 Man'l Tr. 



Special Summer 
Instruction for 
Teachers of 
Special Subjects. 
Deaf. 
Defectives. 



14 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

The organization of the educational department is much the 
same as that found in many other cities. Unlike the business 
department, where a proper form of organization is well estab- 
lished, in the educational department the form of organization 
is less important than the spirit which pervades the organiza- 
tion. Personality, insight and breadth of view count for much 
more here than in the business department. The work is far 
less mechanical and less of a routine nature, is much more dif- 
ficult to organize by means of rules and regulations, and depends 
much more on the quality of the leadership at the top, and the 
freedom given the leader or leaders to work things out in their 
own way, than upon any scheme of organization which can be 
devised. It is in this department that boards of school directors 
too frequently make the mistake of trying to over-organize, and 
of trying to oversee its affairs too minutely. A living and grow- 
ing school system, insofar as it relates to the educational organi- 
zation, cannot be a product of organization and routine. 

Board Meetings 
Two meetings of the Board of Directors were visited, and 
different members of the Survey staff examined the proceedings 
of a number of meetings. The work of the Board was a matter 
of much consideration at the conferences of the Survey staff, 
as it was felt that the work and the attitude of the Board was, in a 
way, the key to the whole situation. In addition, the writer of this 
chapter has carefully examined the minutes of proceedings of 
all meetings held during three months of the present year. These 
were as follows : 

February 20—4:00 P. M.— Regular Meeting. 
February 24—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 
February 28—4:30 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

March ' 6—4:00 P. M.— Regular Meeting. 

March 12—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

March 14—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

March 17—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

March 20—4:00 P. M.— Regular Meeting. 

March 25—4:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

April 3—4:00 P. M.— Regular Meeting. 

April 8—4:30 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

April 10—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

April 12—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

April 17—4:00 P. M.— Regular Meeting. 

April 21—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

April 28—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

May 1—4:00 P. M.— Regular Meeting. 

Mav 6—5:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

May 12—5:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

Mav 15—8:00 P. M.— Regular Meeting. 

May 19—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

May 21—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

May 23—8:00 P. M.— Special Meeting. 

From a mere reading of the above list one must be struck 
with the tremendous number of meetings held. When one re- 



CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 15 

members that the Board also has eight different committees; 
that each Director is a member of four of the eight, and that the 
Chairman of the Board is ex-officio a member of all of the 
eight; and that meetings of these committees, to consider mat- 
ters referred to them by the Board and to formulate reports on 
the same, must also have been frequent; one is led to wonder 
how anyone other than a man of wealth and leisure, or a young 
man of no particular business, could afford to accept member- 
ship on the Board of School Directors for the Portland school 
district. It must require a very deep sense of public duty for 
a man who must earn his living to do the work of a school di- 
rector under the present methods of handling the public's edu- 
cational business, and many a good man must be discouraged 
from serving on the board because he cannot afford the time 
necessary to attend to the business. Such conditions offer a 
constant temptation to the young budding politician, or the busy- 
body with no business, to seek membership on the board for 
personal rather than public ends. The different members of 
the Survey staff were much impressed with the devotion to the 
public interest of the different members of the Board of School 
Directors, and in particular with the time spent on the work 
and the interest taken in it by the President of the Board, and 
they consider it all the more remarkable that the district is able 
to retain the services of such men, under the present plan of 
doing business. 

The Board Does Too Much 

A reading of the minutes of the meetings is sufficient to show 
that the Board of School Directors attempts to handle in person 
far too many things, and to transact, through its committees, and 
then by the Board as a whole, many pieces of business which 
ought to be delegated to the heads of departments and other sub- 
ordinates. The minutes show clearly that the Board spends a 
large proportion of its time trying to handle technical and pro- 
fessional matters, largely relating to teachers and instruction, 
which no Board is competent alone to handle, and which ought 
to be referred to the educational department for attention. A 
reading of the minutes further shows that the Board also spends 
another large proportion of its time in receiving communica- 
tions, referring them to committees, considering them there, re- 
porting them back to the Board with recommendations, and then 
formally taking action, when the matters considered are of such 
a special or routine nature that the communications should have 
been referred at once to the heads of departments for action. 
Many of the communications, too, should not have gone to the 
Board at all, and would not if it were generally understood by 
the people that the proper heads of departments were in posses- 
sion of power to act on such matters. Many other communica- 
tions are referred to committees, considered there, and reported 



16 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

back with the recommendation that they "be received and filed." 
In most of the cases the very nature of the communication made 
such action the perfectly obvious course, and much time could 
have been saved if the Chairman had so directed the Clerk, on 
his merely reading the title. By a proper organization of the 
educational business, it ought to be possible to transact all of 
the school business of the district by a meeting of an hour and 
a half once in two weeks. All such means of saving time are 
important, if citizens of ability and mature judgment are to be 
attracted to positions on the Board. 

Types of Business 

i 
The following tabulation, taken from the minutes above re- 
ferred to, will give some idea as to possible ways of saving time, 
expediting business, and at the same time improving the service, 
all of which might easily be put into effect by the Board. Prac- 
tically all of the following matters were referred to some com- 
mittee for investigation and report, and then were acted on by 
the Board as a whole at a subsequent meeting. 

1. Numerous requests from principals, teachers, parents' 
organizations, citizens, clubs of various kinds, and one from the 
parochial school authorities, asking permission to use school 
buildings or grounds for some purpose, usually of an educational 
nature. 

The action on all of these was so nearly uniform that cer- 
tain general rules for the use of school buildings and grounds 
could easily be formulated, and all such requests could then be 
turned over to the School Clerk or the Superintendent of Prop- 
erties for consideration and action, the Board delegating to them 
their authority to act. In many cases the Superintendent of 
Schools would need to be consulted; seldom would it be neces- 
sary to appeal to the Board for specific instructions. 

2. A number of requests from principals of schools for per- 
mission to hold entertainments in their buildings, usually to raise 
money for the purchase of books or apparatus for the school. 

3. The trade school asked permission to hold an annual 
exhibit of its work and to send invitations to parents. 

4. The trade school asked permission to send an exhibit 
of its work to the Eliot school. 

5. A teacher of a 9B class asked permission to hold a little 
entertainment in her school room, after 2:30 P. M., for the pur- 
poses of a class memorial. 

These requests are all much of a class, all are educational in 
their nature, and full authority in such matters should be given 
to the Superintendent of Schools. In cases 3 and 5, the princi- 
pal of the school should feel that he had full authority himself. 
If the Superintendent cannot handle such matters, the sooner 
the Board gets a Superintendent who can, the better, and if the 



CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 17 

principals cannot take and wisely use such responsibility, they 
ought either to be replaced by principals who can, or have their 
salaries reduced to that of mere clerks. It is a waste of money 
to pay salaries large enough to buy judgment and discretion, and 
then not permit judgment and discretion to be used. 

6. A principal asked permission to hold a meeting of a 
mothers' club in his school building. 

7. A principal asked permission to hold a meeting in his 
building at which could be reported to his neighborhood the 
results of the Human Welfare Congress, held at Reed College. 

8. Two principals asked permission to hold school-garden 
meetings in their buildings, and to make such an announcement 
to their schools. 

9. Two requests from a high school principal for permis- 
sion to invite distinguished men to speak to the students of his 
school. 

Full authority in all these cases should rest with the school 
principal, with perhaps advance notification of the Superin- 
tendent of Properties as to the use of school buildings at irreg- 
ular hours. The schools are public property, and the Board 
should encourage their use as neighborhood centers, and for any 
legitimate public purpose. If a school principal is to be much 
of a neighborhood leader, he must feel free to invite his neigh- 
bors to meet with him at his school for any legitimate end. If 
the principal cannot use such authority wisely, his successor 
ought to be selected soon. In the case of the high school prin- 
cipal, it is foolish to pay $3000 a }^ear to a man who isn't com- 
petent to invite proper persons to address his students. 

10. Certain teachers requested permission to use a manual 
training center, for their own instruction. 

Authority to grant such a request should rest with the prin- 
cipal of the school, or the supervisor of manual training; such 
requests should be encouraged; and such requests should be 
granted without question. 

11. The teachers' committee of the Board brought in a 
report directing the Superintendent of Schools to instruct the 
schools to observe Peace Day. 

The Superintendent, principals or teachers should feel that 
they had such authority, without being directed. Matters relat- 
ing to instruction in the schools should be left entirely in the 
hands of the Superintendent of Instruction. 

12. The students of the trade school present a petition, ask- 
ing for the removal of an instructor in the school. 

13. Groups of teachers present recommendations in favor 
of their principal, for selection as an Assistant Superintendent. 



18 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

14. Groups of teachers recommend the selection of certain 
other teachers in the system, as a school principal. 

Such a petition as 12 should not be received, except through 
the Superintendent of Schools; such as 13 and 14 are compli- 
mentary and meaningless, and not good for the system. In any 
case the Superintendent of Schools and not the Board should 
receive them. 

15. The Superintendent of Schools asks permission to have 
a small eight-page folder printed, relating to the adoption of 
text-books. 

Evidently the Superintendent of Schools has no authority 
to take the initiative in such matters. The same is evident, from 
other minutes, with reference to the Superintendent of Proper- 
ties. In a school system the size of that of Portland some free - 
dom of action in the matter of expenditures should be granted 
heads of departments. The Superintendent of Schools and the 
School Clerk each ought to be able, on their own authority, to 
incur an indebtedness up to $100 a month, and the Superin- 
tendent of Properties a still larger sum. A school principal ought 
also to have some limited authority in this direction. Probably 
no more money would be spent, as these officers are as inter- 
ested as the Board in using the school money wisely, but the 
trust and confidence reposed would lead to better service, and 
the Board as a body and the members as individuals would be 
relieved of much unnecessary detail work. 

16. The principals' monthly property reports are presented 
to the Board each month, and then referred to the Buildings, 
Grounds, Supplies, and Bepairs committees for consideration. 

The wisdom of requiring such reports oftener than once a 
year may be seriously questioned, though reports as to special 
needs should be proper at any time. In any case, such reports 
should be received, tabulated and filed by the Superintendent of 
Properties, and the attention of the Board called only to such 
matters as involve important expenditures or the authorization 
of new work. The details as to the physical condition of the 
school property should be carried in the head of the Superin- 
tendent of Properties, and the Board and its committees should 
not spend their time in going over a lot of minor details, of little 
relative value. 

17. The Board spent two entire sessions, and parts of two 
others, in interviewing principals and special supervisors as to 
the efficiency of their teachers. 

18. A communication is read and referred, from a man 
who desired to interview the Board with reference to his employ- 
ment as a supervisor of music. 

19. One member of the Board stated to a member of the 
Survey staff that as many as one hundred applicants had seen 
him this spring, with reference to their employment as teachers 
in the schools, and that it had been a great drain on his time. 



CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 19 

20. Another member stated that a number of persons had 
visited him with reference to employment as janitors. 

These are all good examples of waste energy and effort, for 
the recommendation of teachers for employment should rest en- 
tirely with the Superintendent of Schools. This is perhaps one 
of his most important functions, and if he cannot handle this, 
the sooner someone who can is selected in his place the better. 
It is the one thing which the Board is least capable of handling, 
the one which wastes most of their time, and the one where they 
make the most mistakes and create the most bitter antagonisms. 
It is a wise Board of School Directors which knows enough to 
let this whole matter alone, and to place the responsibility for 
selections and dismissals squarely on the shoulders of the Su- 
perintendent of Schools. The selection of janitors, similarly, 
should be placed with the Superintendent of Properties, subject 
to the approval of the Superintendent of Schools. 

This Condition an Inheritance 

The numerous board meetings and the handling of many 
details of administration which ought to be passed over to the 
Board's executive officers, are symptoms of a condition which is 
not uncommon in school systems at the present time, and for 
which, in the case at hand, no one in particular is to blame. The 
plan of doing business in that way has descended from the days 
when Portland was a village, and the methods for handling the 
business are still in part village methods. The Board, no doubt, 
groans under the heavy burden, but, not seeing any better way, 
goes through it from a deep sense of public duty. They are not 
themselves to be blamed for the condition which they have in- 
herited, and are, in fact, victims of their own system. They owe 
it to themselves, though, as well as to the best interests of the 
schools under their charge, to break through the system and 
evolve a better plan of work. 

Bad Effects on the System 

The present method of conducting the educational work of 
the district is not only wasteful of the time of the Directors, and 
wholly unnecessary from an educational or a business point of 
view, but it has a depressing effect on the school system as a 
whole. It was the common conviction of every member of the 
Survey staff that the Board of Directors, while thoroughly hon- 
est, deeply interested, and extremely self-sacrificing of their 
lime and business interests, were nevertheless doing entirely too 
much in the handling of the details of school administration, and 
that the results on the school system of such activity were bad. 
The Board of School Directors is too prominent in the admin- 
istration; the executive officers have too little authority and too 



20 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

little initiative; and the effect of such a condition is felt down 
through the whole school system. 

Whether the Superintendent of Schools has continually 
shirked responsibility by passing it on to his Board, or whether 
the Board has assumed authority and taught the Superintendent 
that he must act cautiously, and must not assume too much au- 
thority, we do not know. With the change in Superintendent 
the point is not important, except for the future. Whatever may 
be the origin or the cause, the Superintendent of Schools is given 
at present too little authority, and the one-year term of office 
tends to hold him in subjection. As a result he comes to act 
cautiously, and to defer continually to his Board. He comes to 
the meetings, but his opinion is seldom asked, and seldom of- 
fered. Matters which are clearly within his province are re- 
ferred to Board committees, and not to him. He is entirely too 
little of a leader; entirely too much of an office clerk. Having 
little authority himself, he can in turn give but little to his prin- 
cipals. They, too, must be cautious, and must not assume much 
personal authority. They in turn pass on the same spirit to their 
teachers, with the result that all who really think come to feel 
themselves part of a system, in the devising of which they were 
not consulted, and in the conduct of which they have but little 
to say. 

The result on the school system is about the same as where 
a strong and capable mother assumes all authority over her boy, 
forms his judgments for him, decides what he shall wear, tells 
him what to do and how he shall do it, and directs all of his 
important actions. Her judgments may be, in most cases, better 
than his, but the result of the long training is that the boy grows 
up dependent on his mother, weak and indecisive, lacking in 
resolution or will power, and lacking in force and manhood. A 
Board of School Directors may, similarly, prevent the proper and 
healthy development of a school system by too minute an atten- 
tion to the details of administration. 

It was the judgment of the different members of the Survey 
staff that something of such a condition exists in Portland at 
the present time, and that the fundamental weakness which 
seems to pervade the whole system goes back largely to this 
source. If the Board of Directors in the past had been less effi- 
cient, if they had put less time and less devotion into the ser- 
vice, if they had forced their Superintendent of Schools to as- 
sume more authority and to pass more authority down to his 
principals and teachers, the system would be stronger and more 
capable of swimming alone than it is today. The strength of 
the system as it is is due more to the excellent character of the 
children in the schools and to the good training, youth and good 
sense of the teachers, than to the system of supervision which 
ought to guide and direct it. 



CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 21 

The Way Out 

The present time offers a good opportunity for a change 
and a reorganization which will mean the remaking of the school 
system, and a change which will introduce right principles 
of organization and relieve the Board members of many of their 
onerous duties. 

The present independence of the departments ought to be 
replaced by the centralization of these into one department, the 
educational, with subdepartments, under proper executive heads. 
The present independence of the School Clerk, though it works 
very well with the present appointee, is fundamentally wrong 
in principle. Schools are maintained for the sake of the edu- 
cational side, and the success of affairs on the purely educa- 
tional side is dependent, in no small measure, on the hearty 
co-operation of both the School Clerk and the Superintendent 
of Properties. While exercising large independent jurisdiction 
in many matters, both should be subject to the jurisdiction of 
the Superintendent of Schools. He cannot, properly, be held 
accountable for the successful conduct of the educational affairs 
entrusted to him unless, in the final analysis, he has such final 
control. Under the present plan there are two departments, 
clear and distinct, when there should be but one, and that one 
the educational, properly subdivided for efficient administra- 
tion. The diagram on the following page shows the relation- 
ships which ought to exist. 

The Supervision of Instruction 

At the head of the school department is the Superintendent 
of Schools. His chief function will be the supervision of in- 
struction, but with final jurisdiction, subject only to the Board 
of School Directors, in the case of other matters than instruc- 
tion. He should be made the real head and leader of the school 
system in fact, as well as in name, and full responsibility for 
the successful conduct of all departments of the educational 
service should be placed squarely on his shoulders. He should, 
accordingly, be given tenure, salary, jurisdiction, and authority 
commensurate with the responsibility placed upon him. He 
should be elected for three or four-year terms, so as to give 
him independence in action. The choice of his immediate 
subordinates, his cabinet as it were, should rest almost entirely 
with him, and those who cannot do the work he wants done 
should be relieved of their duties. So long as he can stand 
up under such responsibility, and handle the affairs of the de- 
partment with wisdom and good sense, the Board should stand 
bj r him and his recommendations; whenever the Board comes 
to feel that he does not come up to the position which has been 
created, or does not fill the position as it should be filled, they 
should call for his resignation and select someone else who has 



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CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 23 

the proper personality, courage, knowledge and insight. In 
our large city school systems today it is the Superintendent of 
Schools who gives character and tone to the whole system. What 
a school system is it is largely because of the insight, person- 
ality, and force of the Superintendent of Schools. 

To the Superintendent of Schools also should be given final 
control of the courses of study in the schools; the selection of 
text-books and supplementary books to carry out the courses 
of study; the selection, promotion, and dismissal of teachers; 
the assignment of teachers and principals to their duties; the 
making of rules and regulations relating to the conduct of the 
schools; and the general control of the educational work of the 
school system. In many of these matters, in nearly all of them 
in fact, he will act only after consultation with subordinates, 
particularly the assistant superintendents and the principals. As 
an advisory body the assistant superintendents should form for 
him a kind of educational cabinet; this cannot be, though, unless 
they are of his choosing, and fully in sympathy with him in 
what he is trying to do. 

As long as the Board has confidence in the judgment and 
ability of the Superintendent he should be supported in his 
acts; when they cease to have such, they should call for his 
resignation. They should not assume authority in educational 
matters themselves, nor permit him to evade his proper re- 
sponsibility by putting it off onto them. Book agents, applicants 
for teachers' positions, disgruntled teachers and principals, and 
others seeking favors in the educational branch of the school 
department should, at once, be referred to the Superintendent 
of Schools, with the statement that the Board makes it a rule 
to take no action except upon his recommendation. When once 
this is understood the time of the Board members will not be 
consumed with unnecessary interviews, and the service in the 
schools will be very materially improved. The Superintendent 
of Schools will make some mistakes, of course, but far fewer in 
such matters than will the Board of School Directors. The 
Superintendent exercises his best judgment in the light of his 
long experience, and according to certain well-established edu- 
cational principles; a Board of School Directors, in most educa- 
tional matters, simply guesses. 

Business Department 
The present organization of this department is good, and 
should be continued as it is with few if any changes. The Clerk 
holds a position analogous to that of Business Manager in other 
school systems, and in Appendix A this term has been substi- 
tuted. The Board followed good principles in appointing to 
this position one who had been a school principal, for by the 
very nature of the work to be done it is easier to develop busi- 
ness sense in a good school man than educational sense in a 



24 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

business man. The Clerk, or Business Manager, should be kept 
close to the educational management, and made to feel that 
he is a part of the educational organization. The present isola- 
tion, with the Clerk having his dealings chiefly with the Board, 
is fundamentally wrong, and certain to lead some day to con- 
flict and wasted energy. His duties are at present well assigned, 
though his independence in certain business matters ought to 
be enlarged. 

Building Department 

The Superintendent of Properties should be given rather 
large independent powers and duties, and the position should 
be evolved into one of much importance. The present subordi- 
nation to the School Clerk should be changed to that of the 
Superintendent of Schools, but with the Superintendent of Prop- 
erties the head of an otherwise independent department. Many 
of the' duties now cared for by the Buildings, Bepairs, and In- 
surance Committees should be placed under his control. The 
janitors for the schools should be put under his department, 
and under his supervision and instruction, rather than that of 
the School Clerk, and no janitor or workman should be em- 
ployed by the Board for his department, or dismissed from his 
service, except on his specific recommendation. In the selec- 
tion of janitors the Superintendent of Schools should have the 
right of approval, and he should also have the right of taking 
the initiative in the dismissal of a janitor for cause. The Board 
should create certain standards for the position of school jani- 
tor, which is next to the principal in importance in the proper 
administration of a school, and all applicants for such positions 
should be referred at once to the Superintendent of Properties. 
Certain instruction for the janitors in service, as is recommended 
by Dr. Dresslar in Chapter XIII, ought also to be provided for by 
the Board or the Superintendent of Properties. 

Under this department there should be a School Architect 
and a School Engineer. School architecture cannot be satis- 
factorily handled by a general architect. Buildings are so inte- 
gral a part of education that they should become a special study 
of some capable architect who is willing to give several years 
of his best thought to the problem. Preferably he should be a 
man who has not reached middle age. There are many advan- 
tages in taking a young man, and giving him pay and oppor- 
tunity for travel and study of the best that has been done else- 
where. He should develop the art side of the building problem. 
Our public school buildings should be the most artistic build- 
ings in our cities. This does not mean that they should be ex- 
pensive. From an art standpoint school architecture should not 
be uniform in cities. The present plan, so commonly followed 
in our cities, of building forty or fifty school buildings through- 
out the city all alike, is not good art. Every district, if thor- 



CHAP. II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 25 

oughly studied by one with an art instinct, is sufficiently indi- 
vidualistic to justify recognition in the character of the build- 
ing. In a city such as Portland, where much building will have 
to be done in the near future, and where the present school 
plant will have to be largely reconstructed within the next 
twenty-five years, this is a matter of importance. The school 
engineer should be responsible for the more technical phases 
of the problem, such as heating, ventilation, lighting, strength 
of materials, stresses, plumbing, and the supervision of such 
construction. Just how far these duties, or part of them, can 
be covered for the present by the Superintendent of Properties 
we do not know, as we are not familiar with his technical 
training. 

The Board's Proper Functions 

This does not mean that a Board of School Directors will 
have nothing left to do. On the contrary there will still be 
plenty left. It simply means that in those matters which are 
matters of expert judgment, and which no Board of laymen is 
competent wisely to decide, they ought to act only on the recom- 
mendation of the experts whom they employ, and should trust. 
The matters which Boards of laymen are not competent to han- 
dle are matters relating to the engineering and hygienic prob- 
lems of school house construction; the outlining of the courses 
of study; the selection of text-books; the competency of instruc- 
tion; and the selection, assignment, promotion, and dismissal 
of teachers and janitors. These matters are matters of expert 
judgment, and should be left to the experts employed by the 
Board. It is foolish for laymen to pay a good salary to pro- 
fessional experts and then ignore their judgment and advice. 

This leaves the Board free alike from the strong personal 
pulls and influences and the petty details of school adminis- 
tration, with time to devote to the larger problems of its work. 
These relate to the selection of its expert advisers, upon which 
much time and care should be spent; the larger problems of 
finance, present and future; the selection of school sites, always 
with future needs and growth in mind; the approval of building 
plans; the determination of the budget of expenses; the final 
decision as to proposed expansions and enlargements of the edu- 
cational system; the prevention of unwise legislation by the city 
or by the legislature; and the representation of the needs and 
policies of the school system before the people of the city and 
of the state. These larger needs are far more important, but 
are almost sure to be neglected if a Board of School Directors 
attempts to manage too minutely the details of school adminis- 
tration. 

Perhaps no better illustration of this statement can be found 
than in the case of the enactment of the teachers' permanent 
tenure law, which applies only to the Portland school district, 



26 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

by the Oregon legislature of last winter. To prevent the passage 
of such an unwise law by studying the causes which gave rise 
to it, meeting with the leaders of the movement, making the nec- 
essary concessions (see Chapter IV), and, if necessary, appear- 
ing as a body before the state legislature in opposition to the 
measure, was perhaps the most important duty of the Board of 
School Directors of the Portland school district during the past 
year. So far as can be learned, however, practically nothing 
was done in the matter, and, as a result, an unthinking legisla- 
ture passed a thoroughly bad law to oblige a few score of the 
new electors who appeared before it and made its passage a 
personal matter. 

Good Corporation Management 

The principles of good corporation organization need to be 
applied to educational affairs, and Boards of School Directors 
need to assume more the position of a Board of Directors for a 
large corporation, giving to their executive officers the authority 
which corporation Directors give to their Presidents and Super- 
intendents. The proper functions of the Board of Directors are 
to supply funds, to supervise expenditure, and to determine what 
additions to the plant or extensions of the business are to be 
undertaken. So long as the business prospers the Board should 
leave the details of employment and management to the Presi- 
dent and heads of departments; when the business ceases to 
prosper they should either change their business methods or 
change their executive heads. The school corporation of the 
Portland school district does a three million dollar business each 
year. Its business management seems to be along good cor- 
porate lines, but its professional management does not. There 
is too little authority given to its chief executive officer and 
those who should be his chiefs of staff, and too much uninten- 
tional interference with these officers in the exercise of their 
proper functions. 



CHAP. III. SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 27 



Chapter III 

THE SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 
Sources and Methods of Work 

The system of supervision employed in the Portland school 
district was a matter of deep interest to all who worked on the 
Survey. While the attitude of the Board of School Directors 
toward the administrative problem was felt to be, in a way, the 
key to the whole situation, the system of educational supervision 
set up and maintained by the Board and the supervisory force — 
Superintendent, Assistant Superintendents, Special Supervisors, 
and Principals — was also felt to be of prime importance in de- 
termining the aims and purpose of the educational work and 
the working spirit of the educational organization. Accordingly 
much attention was given by every member of the Survey staff 
who worked on Parts I, II, or IV of this report, to the super- 
visory organization and to the nature and spirit of the super- 
vision. A number of conferences were held with the Superin- 
tendent of Schools and with the Assistant Superintendents, and 
every Principal visited was questioned, somewhat at length, as 
to his own work, his part in the system of supervision, and the 
relation of the supervisory authorities and the Board of School 
Directors to what he was doing. An effort was made to ascer- 
tain the exact nature of the system, the character of the work 
of each member of the supervisory organization, and the real 
supervisory needs of the district. The nature and needs of the 
supervisory organization formed a topic for frequent discus- 
sions at the cenferences held, and all were agreed as to the gen- 
eral diagnosis which was finally reached. The "Rules and Regu- 
lations of the School District" were also examined and discussed, 
and, near the close of the field work, an inquiry form was sent 
to each principal in the district, asking for information as to 
his teaching and supervisor}' experience, special preparation for 
his particular piece of work, chief supervisory services, and 
the important problems of his school. The replies to the inquiry 
sent out, while affording some useful information, were per- 
haps more noteworthy for what they omitted than for what they 
contained. 

That the system of supervision in use in Portland was not 
what it ought to be, to meet the educational needs of such a 
city, was early apparent, and the different members of the 
Survey staff gave much time and attention to trying to find out 
just what was the matter. We desired to locate the trouble so 
as to be able to point out means whereby the existing conditions 
might be improved. After careful consideration of the problem, 



28 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

the members of the Survey staff arrived at certain rather defi- 
nite conclusions relating to the matter, which are embodied in 
this chapter. 

Weakness of the System Found 

That the system of supervision had not been developed along 
good strong lines was evident almost at once. Looking at the 
system from the outside, and in the light of good administra- 
tive principles, it at once gave the impression of lacking self- 
reliance, and of being weak from over-direction from above. 
This fundamental weakness seemed to pervade the whole super- 
visory system, and to extend from the top downward. The sys- 
tem seemed to lack character and strength, and seemed to be 
more of a system of inspection and reporting than a system of 
helpful educational leadership. The system seemed to be suffer- 
ing from too many rules and too little personal initiative, and, 
as a result, to be realizing but a low percentage of its possible 
efficiency. The over-direction seemed, in a way, to be stifling 
the growth of those in it, and in part paralyzing their impulses 
to individual action. 

Relatively few members of the supervisory force impressed 
the members of the Survey staff as being thoroughly alive edu- 
cationally, or as fully measuring up to the possibilities of the 
task before them. We found six or seven of the elementary school 
principals, and some of the supervisors of special subjects, who 
seemed thoroughly conscious of what ought to be demanded of 
them, and anxious to make personal and professional progress. 
On the other hand, we found very few in the supervisory force 
who seemed to be really poor material. The great majority im- 
pressed us rather as being well selected and of good material, 
but dormant rather than active. They impressed us as doing 
very little real educational thinking, and as in a way fitting 
into the system and drifting along, doing reasonably well what 
they were directed to do, but showing little or no personal 
initiative, and but little consciousness of the large educational 
possibilities of their positions. As a class, they impressed us 
as relying largely on their past experience, and as doing but 
little reading and studying. 

Such Conditions Not Inherent 

Such a condition, however, ought not, of all places, to be 
found in such a city as Portland. The conditions there are such 
that the city ought to have one of the most progressive and 
aggressive school systems in the land, with a thoroughly alive 
and thoroughly well-informed supervisory organization. 

After seeing the different members of the supervisory force 
we were convinced that such conditions ought not to exist in 
Portland. Personally, the sixty supervisory officers emploved 



CHAP. III. SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 29 

measure up well, — belter in fact than those of the average mid- 
dle-sized or large city. An examination of their education and 
experience records would indicate that they are a rather su- 
perior lot of men and women, and an examination of their age 
records shows that most of them still belong to the active fruit- 
ful years between thirty and fifty, — years when they ought to 
be growing and rendering the largest possible service to the 
city. In clerical work, in supervising fire drills and marching, 
in giving out supplies, in keeping records, in looking after the 
material equipment, and in handling the mechanical side of . 
their work, nearly all of them seemed to be quite efficient. On 
the other hand, many did not seem to know what ought to be 
done in the classrooms, or why, or how to extend helpful per- 
sonal supervision to their teachers. Most of them seemed to 
accept the whole system as it was, and without much of a ques- 
tion why. This seemed true also of at least one of the high school 
principals, of some of the heads of departments within the high 
schools, and of some of the teachers in the elementary schools 
with whom we talked. 

Full Efficiency Not Realized 

Gradually we were led to feel that, under the system of 
supervision in use, the Board of School Directors was not real- 
izing one-half of the possible efficiency of their principals and 
superintendents. Many of the teachers, too, were not working 
with full steam ahead. A Board of School Directors ought, theo- 
retically, to so set conditions as to get all or more from its super- 
intendents and principals than it pays them for; under the pres- 
ent supervisory conditions it seemed to us that the Board was, 
in most cases, paying for more than it received. The present 
salaries for supervisory officers in Portland are low, if the high- 
est grade of supervisory service is to be obtained; they are high, 
in most cases, for the kind of service now rendered. Salaries 
of $7,000 to $8,000 for a Superintendent of Schools, $3,500 to 
$4,500 for Assistant Superintendents, $3,600 for high school prin- 
cipals, $2,400 to $2,800 for the principals of intermediate schools, 
and $2,200 to $2,400 for the larger elementary school principal- 
ships, are not too large salaries for Portland to pay for such 
positions to men or women of distinctly first-rate ability. Such 
salaries, though, ought not to be paid except to~those of demon- 
strated executive capacity, and as a proper return for the wise 
and judicious exercise of large authority and responsibility. To 
pay salaries which ought to buy the ability to exercise large 
authority and responsibility, and then not encourage or allow 
its use, is a waste of both money and of executive efficiency 
The best men tend to get out from under such a system; average 
men fall into the ruts and rapidly lose the ability to exercise 
such authority as they once possessed. 



30 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Ultimate Reasons for the Condition 

The more the situation was examined into the more we were 
convinced that the ultimate reason for this condition, disregard- 
ing for the present other matters, went back to the same causes 
which were pointed out in the preceding chapter. In the super- 
vision of the schools, as well as in many other matters, the 
Board of School Directors is too prominent; the Superintendent 
of Schools, the Assistant Superintendents, and the Principals 
occupy entirely too subordinate a position. The Board tries to 
manage too much and to control too many details. Many mat- 
ters now handled in large part by it ought to be passed on down 
to subordinates for action. The supervisory force, on the other 
hand, leave and refer many matters to the Board for decision 
which ought to be assumed as lying within their own spheres of 
authority and action. It would be a hopeful sign of educational 
consciousness if the superintendents, supervisors, and principals., 
while admitting the legal right of the Board to decide such mat- 
ters, were, at times, to seriously contest their educational right 
to do so. 

The'result, as was pointed out in the preceding chapter, has 
been that the school system has not developed along the strong 
executive lines it ought to have followed. What real strength 
the system has today it has more by reason of the youth, good 
education, and character of its teachers than by reason of the 
system of supervision under which the system is guided. Of 
real educational leadership there is altogether too little; of 
stimuli to independent action and thinking there are altogether 
too few. As a result, a certain timidity and lack of character, 
indicating a fundamental weakness somewhere, seems to pervade 
the supervisory organization. In most matters the supervisory 
officers keep close to the well established paths, and do not as- 
sume much independence in action. The school system, as a 
natural result, is strong chiefly along the old traditional lines, 
and a uniformity so marked that it impedes progress characterizes 
the educational system. 

A few of the stronger and more progressive principals have 
departed a little, it is true, from this uniformity, generally in 
matters other than instruction, and have been allowed to do so. 
This has been due rather to personal strength and energy, and 
has merely been permitted, rather than because of any pressure 
from above exerted to produce such activity. To a somewhat 
constant question asked of the principals, "Do you feel any 
pressure put on you from above to become more efficient, and 
to be a stronger and more useful principal, or lose your posi- 
tion?" the answer was almost uniformly "No." A number added 
that, on the contrary, the pressure was in the other direction, 
and that they felt hampered by the inspection, the uniformity, 



CHAP. III. SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 31 

and the lack of independence in action. Those principals who 
had recently come to the system from elsewhere were, in gen- 
eral, the ones who recognized the condition most clearly; while 
those who had grown up under the system frequently could see 
little the matter with it. 

Characteristics of a Good Supervisory Organization 

Such a condition is not conducive to healthy growth, and 
is not good for the schools. Just as a superintendent of schools, 
by his educational insight, personality, and force gives tone and 
character to a whole school system, so do principals or special 
supervisors give tone to the school or to the work under their 
immediate supervision. A good supervisory organization always 
places a positive premium on the development of those personal 
and professional qualities which give tone and character to a 
school. It encourages a judicious use of personal liberty in 
action, and stimulates thinking and personal growth by placing 
responsibility and encouraging initiative. It places a premium 
on personal efficiency, and on being and keeping stronger than 
the average of the mass. Especially in the high school does it 
place a premium on intelligent departures from uniform pro- 
cedure. The man or woman who merely drifts along, handling 
the mechanical details, doing only what is required, taking few 
chances, and putting but little thought and intelligence into the 
work, is not really worth much in salary, and administrative 
conditions ought to be so shaped as rapidly to eliminate such 
supervisory officers from the system. 

It was soon evident that Portland was failing to get the best 
results from its principals. This is due to lack of responsi- 
bility placed upon them. Because of lack of opportunity to 
exercise initiative, they are expending their efforts in carry- 
ing out a system in whose creation they had little or no part. 
The result is a uniformity in the schools that is almost appalling. 
Every school and each classroom in it has problems peculiar 
to itself. The waste of time, effort and life is deplorable. No 
system of education can be highly efficient without drawing 
upon its corps of teachers and principals to work out its edu- 
cational problems. Nor will committees and counsellors suf- 
fice. Every principal must be given to understand clearly that 
he is responsible not only for the problems common to the sys- 
tem, but for those peculiar to his individual school. Fortunate 
is the school if the principal realizes that he can successfully 
solve these only by appealing to the same individuality of the 
teacher, in working out her room problems, and in assisting in 
developing his school. 

Rules and Regulations and the System 
An examination of the "Rules and Regulations" for the 



32 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

schools of the district is enough to reveal most of the causes of 
the existing conditions, and an examination of the administra- 
tive practices only confirms the impression created by a read- 
ing of the rules and regulations. The Board of School Direc- 
tors tries to handle far too many things by rule; the Superin- 
tendent and his staff are given entirely too little authority, and 
are held responsible to the Board for far too few things; the 
rules and regulations cover too many matters which ought to be 
left to someone's good judgment and good sense; the principals 
and teachers are not dealt with in quite the manner calculated 
to secure any large degree of confidence or friendly co-opera- 
tion; and a series of checkings up and petty fines enforce the 
regulations of the Board. The effect of such a method extends 
into the Superintendent's office, and from there down to the 
principals and teachers in the schools. 

Whether these conditions have come as a result of inaction 
on the part of the Superintendent, the Board feeling themselves 
forced to assume authority because he did not, and to govern 
by rules because he did not by personal direction; or whether 
the Board has assumed the authority because they had the legal 
right to do so, and have kept the Superintendent in the back- 
ground, we do not knew and do not attempt to say. The point 
is not important either, except for the future. Whatever the 
origin of the condition, however, the Board does too much, and 
has too many mandatory rules; it puts too little responsibility 
on the Superintendent, and gives him too little authority; an 
unnecessary uniformity, often deadening in its effects, seems 
to pervade the system; and a series of examinations, inspections, 
and reports replaces the leadership and helpful relationships 
found in many other cities. The system, as has been stated be- 
fore, is doubtless one of long evolution, for which no one in 
particular is responsible, but one which the present opportunity 
offers a good chance to change. 

Concrete Illustrations; Board Control 

The rules and regulations of Boards of Education usually 
devote much space to a statement of the powers, duties, and 
responsibilities of the Superintendent of Instruction. He is 
usually made the real head of the whole school system; rather 
large responsibilities are usually placed on his shoulders; much 
liberty of action is given to him, in educational matters; and 
his rights are often rather carefully stated. After reading the 
"Bules and Begulations" of the Board of School Directors of 
the Portland district, one is impressed with how few real re- 
sponsibilities are placed with the Superintendent, and how largely 
clerical his duties really are. Instead of being the head of the 
school system, there are two heads, — the School Clerk and the 
Superintendent of Schools. Of these two the School Clerk has 



CHAP. III. SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 33 

the larger authority and liberty of action. Doubtless, under the 
present rules, the Superintendent of Schools could assume larger 
authority than he seems to possess, but if he did it would be 
because he did assume it, and not because the Board put such 
responsibility upon him, as they should. 

According to the rules every teacher and every janitor in 
the system must make a formal written application to the Board 
of School Directors each year, as a prerequisite to the retention 
of their positions. Such a requirement, once common, has been 
abandoned almost everywhere today, and no doubt this rule 
contributed somewhat to the desire of the teachers for the enact- 
ment of the recent teachers'-tenure law. The Board selects all 
teachers and designates their employment by schools. The rules 
do not indicate that the Superintendent has anything to say in the 
matter, though the selection of teachers ought to be one of his 
most important functions. In practice, though, we find that 
all applicants are interviewed by the Superintendent, or one of 
his assistants; file their applications in regular order; and that 
their records are looked up, and a graded list of all applicants 
is made up, in his office. The members of the Board also see 
applicants, and naturally form mental or written lists of their 
own, for use in connection with the one prepared by the Super- 
intendent of Schools. 

After employment, the Board in a way supervises the teach- 
ing force. All high school principals must report their assign- 
ments of teachers to the Superintendent, and he forthwith to 
the Board. All elementary school principals must report, in 
writing, to the Board twice a year "concerning the efficiency 
or inefficiency of their teachers," and toward the close of each 
year each principal is required to come before the Board as a 
body, and is interviewed further, to the same end. Special teach- 
ers must also report, in writing, to the Board, before the close 
of each term, as to the efficiency of the teachers under them. 

In dealing with pupils, the principals must report all cases 
of corporal punishment to the Board. The principal may sus- 
pend a pupil for cause, but only the Board or the Superin- 
tendent can restore the pupil to school. Such rules of the Board 
as are pertinent must be read and explained to all pupils the 
first week of each school month, and, to ensure obedience to 
this rule, the principals must report monthly whether or not 
they have obeyed this rule. Fire drills are required to be held 
each week, and these must be reported at once. For failure to 
hold a fire drill, or to report the same, a fine of $5.00 is imposed 
on the principal. Each school principal must hold a general 
meeting of his teachers every week, and for failure to do so is 
fined $1.00. If a principal fails to attend any meeting called 
by the Superintendent of Schools, or a teacher any meeting called 
by the Superintendent or a principal, or if late in arriving, a 



34 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



fine of $1.00 for absence and 50 cents for tardiness is imposed. 
All teachers must sign a register on arriving in the morning and 
at noon, and if at all tardy a fine of $1.00 is imposed for each 
offence. The Board, by vote, may remit such fines, for good 
cause, if an excuse is filed in writing with the School Clerk, 
within one week. Special supervisors, in visiting buildings, must 
have their time of arrival and departure certified to on a blank 
form, by the principal, and these certified blanks must be for- 
warded to the office of the Superintendent of Schools. Teachers, 
when not on monitorial duty at intermissions, are directed by 
rule to "remain in their rooms and devote themselves to the 
discharge of their own duties." Visiting the room of another 
teacher at an intermission, except on school business, is strictly 
forbidden. If a teacher requests a leave of absence to the end 
of a school year, the rules provide that such request shall be 
considered as equivalent to a resignation. 

Concrete Illustrations; Supervisory Control 

In passing from the administration of the Board to that of 
the Superintendent's office, a somewhat similar spirit seems to 
pervade the work. Perhaps this is but a natural reflection of 
the attitude of the Board. The uniform course of study, pre- 
sumably drawn up by the Superintendent and formally adopted 
by the Board, is laid down, for each of the fifty-four parts, 
by pages in certain adopted text-books. The work of these books 
is supposed to be covered by all teachers, and in all classes of 
schools. Instead of allowing alternatives and options, and per- 
mitting some adjustment to individual abilities and needs, the 
course is the same for all. Uniformity is further obtained by 
final term examinations, made out in the office of the Superin- 
tendent of Schools, and which are required of all grades from 
the third to the ninth inclusive. Four pages of the "Rules and 
Regulations" of the Board are devoted to details relating to 
these term examinations. Regardless of the differences in the 
educational needs of* the classes of pupils attending such schools 
as the Irvington and the Failing, or the Couch and the Lents, 
for example, the course of instruction for the entire nine years 
is identical for all schools. Even in the day school for the deaf 
an unsuccessful attempt is made to require the same technical 
instruction for these special-type children. In the trade school, 
too, a class of mature girls, who had entered the school for 
work in the homekeeping arts, was seen laboriously trying to 
make up the technical grammar of the grades, which they hap- 
pened to have missed. Of what use it would be to them when 
made up the principal of the school could not tell us, and it 
would be hard for anyone else to say. In the high schools, each 
school must do the same work in each subject, and the only 



CHAP. III. SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 35 

chance for change seemed to lie in the unanimous agreement 
of all three schools, and the approval of the Superintendent and 
Board. Such a plan enables the poorest and least progressive 
teachers, or schools, or principals, to set the pace for the entire 
system; makes no allowance for differences in aptitude and 
needs; and is educationally indefensible. 

In the supervision of the work of instruction, so far as we 
could find out, but little of a really helpful nature is provided. 
The two Assistant Superintendents, who divide the classroom 
supervision between them, seemed seldom to put themselves in 
the attitude of a fellow teacher, willing to take criticism as well 
as give it, but rather to work as inspectors, whose chief purpose 
was to check up and grade both teachers and principals, and to 
see how fully the course of study was being carried out and 
the rules and regulations obeyed. This may seem very unjust, 
to these Superintendents, but this certainly was the firm im- 
pression of their work obtained from questioning both princi- 
pals and teachers as to what they did when they visited the 
schools. The present type of inspection is wasteful of time, 
energy, and money, and is of little value to the schools. 

Coming still further down, the majority of the principals 
seemed lacking in the essentials of a good and helpful leader. 
By this we mean the ability to improve and develop teachers as 
teachers; to encourage and aid them in their particular work; 
to advise them as to better ways and methods; and to inspire 
them with confidence, and enthuse them for the work of in- 
struction. To be such a leader a principal must know the de- 
tails of all phases of the school work as well or better than do 
his teachers; he ought to be able to take their classes from them, 
and teach them as well or better than they can; and in methods 
of work and reasons for doing things, he ought to be distinct- 
ively their leader. 

This impression was further confirmed by a reading of the 
"Beport of the Committee on Hearings," held in April of this 
year, relating to the cases of seventeen teachers, against whom 
charges of incompetency had been made by principals. Some 
of these charges seemed almost trivial, and a number seemed 
to indicate that the principal had not been in close and helpful 
personal relations with his teachers during the year. For such 
conditions the principals are perhaps not so much to blame as 
is the system under which they work. The pressure to become 
helpful personal and educational leaders, rather than inspectors 
and custodians, has never been put seriously on them from above. 
The most efficient supervision, taken as a whole, seemed to be 
in the special subjects, where special supervisors are employed. 
Largely freed from rules, regulations, uniformity, and inspection, 
the work in most of the special subjects seemed to possess life 
and spirit. 



36 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Responsibility for the Condition 

This, we realize, is rather a severe criticism, but it is meant 
as a criticism of a system which ought to be changed, and not 
.of individuals. For the system of supervision, as we found it, 
perhaps no one in particular is responsible. It is doubtless a 
condition which has gradually grown up, rather than the product 
of the work of any one individual or individuals. The condi- 
tion, probably, in its origin, antedates the service of any one 
now in control, and goes back to the days when Portland was 
a small town. Methods once employed have tended to become 
established, and the present system of supervision has been 
gradually evolved. The Survey staff is not interested in trying 
to fix responsibility for the condition, and it would probably 
serve no useful purpose even if this could be done. Our only 
purpose in explaining the system in such detail has been to 
make clear the need of certain fundamental changes in the sys- 
tem itself. 

Needed Changes 

The changes we would recommend are: 

1. That the powers and responsibilities of the Superintend- 
ent of Schools, in the supervision of the educational work, be 
greatly enlarged by the withdrawal of the Board of School Di- 
rectors from such work; and that he be made much more re- 
sponsible than heretofore for the character of the instruction 
in the schools, for the work of his subordinates, and for the 
harmonious and successful co-operation of all departments. To 
this end he should be given a longer term of office, and the selec- 
tion of his immediate subordinates should rest very largely with 
him. (See Appendix A.) 

2. That the Superintendent, after such consultation with 
his assistants, the principals and teachers as to him seems best, 
be given full recommending authority in the matter of the selec- 
tion, promotion, and dismissal of teachers; the outlining of the 
course of study; and the selection of text-books and supple- 
mentary books for the schools. These are functions which the 
Board itself ought not to attempt to exercise. 

3. That the Superintendent be made to become the real 
educational leader for the school system, or to give place to 
some one who can. To this end, he should be freed from as 
much detail and clerical work as is possible, and be expected 
to spend his time in studying the educational problem and in 
visiting the schools, rather than in remaining in his ottice. To 
this end he should be provided with an autmobile, to facilitate 
his movements and to save his time in traveling about over a 
city of such size. 

4. To enable him to spend much of his time in the schools, 
the position of Assistant to the Superintendent, for office work, 



CHAP. III. SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 37 

should be created. The person for this position should be pos- 
sessed of good training and experience, have good executive 
ability, and be paid a salary of at least $2,500. The position 
would be somewhat analogous to that of a private secretary to 
the president of a college, or the president of a large corpora- 
tion. One of the best of the elementary school principals might 
well be selected for such a position. His (or her) work would 
be to do, under direction, the greater part of the office and 
clerical work now done by the Superintendent, and to relieve 
him from the necessity of wasting time with people of little 
or no business, so that he may have time to become a real Su- 
perintendent of Instruction and a leader of his principals and 
teachers. It ought to be the Superintendent's chief business to 
read, study, observe, think, plan, advise, and lead. If he does 
these things well there is little chance of a city paying him too 
much. If he does not or can not do them, he ought to be re- 
placed by someone who can. He can not do these things, though, 
and be much of an office-chair, clerical-type of superintendent. 
The Board can not legitimately expect him to be both, and so 
ought to provide him with proper assistance and force him to 
lead or leave. 

With such an office assistant to the Superintendent, to attend 
to much of the clerical work, neither the Superintendent nor 
the Assistant Superintendents ought to be expected to keep office 
hours in the afternoon more than two or three days a week. 
They could alternate their days, and save much wasting of time. 
Instead, they should spend the time in meeting and talking with 
their principals and teachers, and in educating them in the ideas 
and ideals which ought to dominate the system. 

5. That the Superintendent of Schools should organize his 
elementary school principals and Assistant Superintendents into 
an educational club, for reading and study on topics tending to 
improve their efficiency and enlarge their views. The three high 
school principals, the principal of the trade school, and the prin- 
cipals of any intermediate schools which may be established, 
ought to be organized into another study and discussion group. 
It certainly ought not to be too much to expect all principals 
to unite in a study of good educational conditions elsewhere, to 
read carefully the half-dozen most important educational books 
issued each year, and to further direct the reading and study 
of two or three books by groups of their teachers. A doctor 
who does not read will soon fall far behind, and teaching is 
much like medicine in this respect. Under good leadership and 
direction such work could be made of much interest to the prin- 
cipals and teachers, and of much value to the school system. 

6. That the supervisory work of the department should be 
distributed downward more than is now the case. The Board 



38 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

should do much less; the Superintendent and principals much 
more. Administrative conditions should be made such as to 
encourage the development of executive capacity on the part of 
many members of the department, instead of relying on the judg- 
ment and authority of a few. 

7. The supervisory work of the department needs chang- 
ing in direction and purpose. This will also involve changes in 
all that tends to produce the present uniformity and rigidity, 
chief among which are the present course of study, the uniform 
term examinations, and the attention to supervisory details by 
the Board itself. The whole supervisory system, too, should 
largely lose its present inspectional character, and be changed 
into one of helpful educational leadership. If. those in charge 
of such service, — Assistant Superintendents, special supervisors, 
and principals, — can not adjust themselves to such new purposes, 
changes in personnel should be made without unnecessary delay. 

8. If the supervisory work of the schools is to be redirected 
along the lines suggested, the present staff of Assistant Super- 
intendents is too small. The force of Assistant Superintendents 
ought to be increased bj' adding a woman, skilled in the super- 
vision of the first four years of school work, to aid both teachers 
and principals in making the first years of the elementary school 
course more effective and more valuable. Her training should 
be broad enough to fit her for a high school position, but her 
experience and sympathies should be in elementary school work. 
The majority of pupils in public schools is apt to be girls, and 
a very large majority of teachers are women. A wise and 
capable woman as assistant superintendent can not only be of 
great service constructively in helping to solve the problem of 
education in our schools for girls, but she can simplify some 
of the delicate social problems that are troubling us. 

9. That the office of principal of both the elementary and 
the high schools should be increased materially in importance, 
and the character of the services now rendered by such officers 
should be in part changed. They should be expected to study 
the educational side of their work more than they do; they 
should be expected to become more helpful personal and profes- 
sional leaders than they now are; they should be given larger 
authority and larger liberty in the management of their schools 
than they now possess; a reasonable individuality as between 
schools should be encouraged, in place of the present evident 
attempt at uniformity; and the principals and special supervisors 
should be expected to be responsible to the Superintendent of 
Schools for the successful conduct of their schools, and not to 
the Board of School Directors. 

10. That the present requirement that the principals teach 
some particular class one hour a day ought to be changed to a 



CHAP. III. SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION 39 

requirement that they should give instruction somewhere in the 
school for four or five hours each week, the same to be dis- 
tributed among the different rooms and subjects. The present 
requirement does not lead to efficiency. When the principal has 
taught his present class one hour each day he feels relieved from 
instruction elsewhere, and the personal growth and helpful serv- 
ice that comes from a general distribution of instruction is lost. 
A principal ought to be able to teach well anywhere; if he can 
not, the sooner he learns the better. 

11. That the present requirement of a general teachers' 
meeting each week in each school should be changed. The pres- 
ent meetings, in most of the schools, are purely formal in char- 
acter, and are of little value. A common time for holding them 
is during the noon recess; they last but a short time; the program 
of work lacks aim or purpose; and many of them are a pure 
waste of time. These meetings ought to be changed into real 
teachers' meetings, with general school meetings once a month, 
and grade meetings oftener. A good plan for grade meetings 
would be to unite three or possibly four neighboring schools. 
Definite programs of work should be provided; some personal 
study of school problems should be expected; and the study of 
one or two books of importance to teachers ought to be made 
a part of the work. The Superintendent of Schools, and such 
assistants as he may desire, should attend such meetings as often 
as is possible, to aid and encourage both teachers and princi- 
pals. To this end the Superintendent ought not to be expected 
to keep office hours in the afternoon oftener than two afternoons 
a week. 

12. That an additional Assistant Superintendent of Schools 
ought to be provided, to assist the Superintendent in the above 
work, and to act as a critical educational expert for the system. 
If any serious attempt is made to carry out the recommendations 
of this Report, such a man will prove of great value in measur- 
ing, testing and directing. The man for this position ought to 
be not only a man of practical experience, but also the best 
trained man, in psychology and education, in the system, and he 
ought to occupy something of the position of a consulting psy- 
chologist for the schools. It should be his particular function 
to study the educational problems of the district at first hand, 
to continually check up the work of the schools, to study the 
needs of defectives and overaged pupils, and to serve as an edu- 
cational director and adviser to all in the administration of the 
work of instruction. A salary of $4,000 is not too much to pay 
for such a man, and he should possess such training and experi- 
ence as would fit him for a professorship of education in a good 
university. Less money put on a cheaper man is likely to be 
largely wasted. 



40 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



13. The present system of fines ought to be abolished, and 
judgment and common sense be allowed to rule in their stead. 
The present system is both petty and vexatious; irritating to both 
principals and teachers; and the having to offer excuses to the 
Board and through the School Clerk, instead of dealing with the 
principal or Superintendent concerned, is wrong in principle. 
It was the unanimous verdict of the members of the Survey that 
a good system of school administration could not be developed 
along such lines. Teachers and principals should be given some 
freedom, and then be expected to use the freedom wisely. In 
cases of apparent omission the principal of the school or the 
Superintendent of Instruction should have full power to deal 
with the case in whatever way seems best. 

14. That the rules and regulations of the Board of School 
Directors should be thoroughly revised, with a view to bringing 
them into harmony with these recommendations. 



CHAP. IV. PART I— SELECTION OF TEACHERS 



41 



Chapter IV 

THE SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 

/. The Selection of Teachers 

The recent rapid increase in the number of teachers and 
supervisory officers employed in the Portland school district 
may be seen from the following table: 

Table 1 
Number of Teachers and Supervisors Employed, by Years 





Teachers 












in 


Teachers 


Supervis- 






Year 


Element- 


in High 


ory 


Totals 


Yearly 




ary 


Schools 


Officers 




Increase 




Schools 










1913 .... 


| 662 


155 


86 


903 


73 


1912 .... 


626 


140 


64 


830 


82 


1911 


574 


115 


59 


748 


62 


1910 .... 


535 


97 


54 


686 


61 


1909 .... 


497 


82 


46 


625 


51 


1908 .... 


474 


57 


43 


574 


79 


1907 .... 


424 


40 


31 


495 


67 


1906 .... 


363 


29 


26 


418 


42 


1905 .... 


327 


26 


23 


376 


25 


1904 


308 


22 


21 


351 


21 


1903 


290 


20 


20 


330 


17 


1902 .... 


258 


20 


35 


313 


15 


1901 


245 


20 


33 


298 


4 


1900 


240 


20 


34 


294 





Counting deaths, resignations, and removals, something over 
a hundred new teachers are needed by the Portland school dis- 
trict at present each year, and this number will gradually in- 
crease. 

Recruitment and Training 

Exceptionally good conditions for the recruitment of an ex- 
cellent body of experienced teachers, drawn from all parts of 
the United States, are before the educational authorities of the 
city ofPortland. The city is growing rapidly, by reason of a 
larjge influx of people from elsewhere, and a certain percentage 
of these will naturally be experienced teachers. One-half of 
Portland's total population has come to it from other American 
states, and most of this inter-state migration has been from 
states of the upper Mississippi Valley, — states in which normal 
schools exist in large numbers, and in which many excellent 
school systems are to be found. Portland, too, is a city through 
which many tourists pass, and the best of teachers travel as 



42 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



much as their funds will permit. It is easy for them to ar- 
range to stop in Portland in passing, to see and to be seen. 

By reason of its advantageous location, by reason of the 
large addition to the population from the eastern states, and by 
reason of its good salary schedule for elementary school teach- 
ers, Portland ought to be able to draw into its schools each year 
large numbers of well-trained and experienced Eastern teach- 
ers. When this is possible, to accept anything less would be an 
educational mistake. Portland also, as the largest city in Ore- 
gon, ought to be able each year to attract into its schools the 
best trained and the most capable and energetic teachers to be 
found in the towns and smaller cities of Oregon and Washing- 
ton. Any wise educational policy would involve a systematic 
effort to hunt out, attract, and secure such- teachers. What the 
city of Portland should want is the best service its money will 
secure; where the teacher comes from is immaterial. 

That large numbers of well-trained Eastern teachers do apply 
for positions in Portland was evident from an examination of 
the graded list of applicants, compiled each year by the Super- 
intendent of Schools. To see how far the teachers actually 
employed had been drawn from elsewhere, a tabulation has been 
made of the records of training of all teachers employed, as 
printed in the last published report of the Superintendent of 
Schools. These records show the following condition : 

Table 2 
Education of Teachers Employed in Portland 



Teachers Employed in 



Teachers Graduates of 








Elementary 


High 




1 Schools 


Schools 


Portland High Schools onlv 


240 


10 


Other Portland institutions only 


33 


2 


High Schools, Normal Schools or Col- 






leges, elsewhere in Oregon 


93 


15 


Same, in California and Washington.. 


26 


10 


Same, in the eight Mountain states. . . . 


5 


2 


Same, in the seven west North Central 






states 


104 


33 


Same, in the five east North Central 








83 


27 


Same, in the three Middle Atlantic states 


21 


6 


Same, in the six New England states. . 


11 


16 


Same, in the sixteen Southern states.. 


10 





Training received in foreign countries 


10 


7 


Not graduates of any school 


85 


14 


Totals 


720 


142 


Total teachers listed 




862 



CHAP. IV. PART I— SELECTION OF TEACHERS 43 

This table makes a very good showing, except for the large 
number of elementary school teachers (33 l-3#) who are prod- 
ucts of the Portland schools alone, and the other large number 
(12# for elementary schools, and 10# for high schools) who are 
not graduates of any school. An examination of the list shows 
that the latter are either teachers who have been long in the 
service, or else are teachers of special subjects in the school of 
trades or in the high schools. The large number of Portland 
high school graduates is doubtless due to the teachers' training 
courses maintained in the city high schools, and to the two-year 
pupil-training system, following the high school course, but re- 
cently abolished by the Board of School Directors. 

The policy which has been followed of drawing into the 
school system numbers of good teachers from the outside is one 
worthy of much commendation, and one which ought to be con- 
tinued in the future. Due to the teaching courses offered in the 
high schools and the pupil-teacher system in the past, the per- 
centage of Portland high school graduates has crept up much 
too high, especially in view of the weakness of the Portland 
educational system, as is pointed out further on in Chapters VIII, 
IX, and X. For a few years to come the Board and the Super- 
intendent ought, in the interests of the schools, to be rather 
reluctant to employ more elementary school teachers who have 
had only such training as has been provided at home. 

The Training-Courses for Teachers 

The abolishment of the pupil-teacher training system by the 
Board of School Directors was undoubtedly a wise thing to have 
done, and the wisdom of further maintaining the so-called teach- 
ing courses in the high schools, even to comply with the optional 
state law, is very questionable. Such courses as are now offered 
give but a very meager preparation for teaching, and one wholly 
inadequate for large city needs. Due, however, to the fact that 
the graduates from such a course receive a state teacher's cer- 
tificate, under which they may teach two years, they may easily 
go out and obtain the required two years of experience in the 
country, under much poorer supervisory conditions than ex- 
isted in the city under the old pupil-teacher training system, 
and then return and become candidates for positions and exert 
pressure to get them. The district thus runs a constant danger 
in continuing these courses. It would be very much better if 
all such prospective teachers first graduated regularly from the 
high school, and then spent two years in a good normal school, 
making adequate professional preparation for teaching. Then, 
after some experience in the towns, many such would make de- 
sirable future teachers, and might then be employed with safety 
by the school authorities. Under present conditions, however, 



44 SCHOOL SURVEY REPO RT 

the present high school teaching courses serve largely to open 
the way for home girls to enter the schools as teachers on 
meager and inadequate preparation, and hence do more harm 
than good. 

Common Defects of Such Courses 

One great trouble with all such local training schemes is 
that they are too easy to get through, and inevitably result in 
an in-breeding process which sooner or later saps the vigor and 
independence of the school system. Having finished the inade- 
quate course of training provided, the graduates come to expect 
jobs in the schools, and the schools, unable to offer any good 
reason why they should not take what they have graduated, 
gradually fill up their schools with such material to the exclu- 
sion of better teachers from the outside. The girls who take 
the training may be good enough as prospective material, but 
the course of training usually provided is so absolutely inade- 
quate that it does not give the necessary breadth of view or the 
proper professional conceptions. The old Portland plan was of 
this class, in that it prepared its graduates only for the type 
of instruction which they had gone through and seen in the 
Portland schools. They obtained from it no adequate educa- 
itonal conceptions, no comparative standards, and no broad out- 
look on the problems of education, and mechanized the process 
of teaching rather than reasoned it out. 

It is an almost necessary part, too, of a teacher's prepara- 
tion to go away from home for at least part of her training; 
to come in contact with other schools, and other methods of 
work; and to learn to think for herself by rubbing up against 
the differing opinions of other people. The home girl, to be 
the equal of the girl from elsewhere, must have experienced a 
training in an excellent city normal school, and under masters 
who are unusually broad. This the old Portland system did not 
provide, and it was the feeling of the members of the Survey 
staff who inquired at all into the matter, that the poorest teach- 
ers seen in the schools were the products of this high-school- 
training and pupil-teacher system. 

Training vs. Attracting Teachers 
The city of Portland is at present too small to warrant the 
expense of maintaining a first-class city normal school, and 
anything else it would be foolish to maintain. A first-class nor- 
mal school ought to be as well equipped as a first-class high 
school, and ought to cost as much to maintain. It ought to be, 
too, distinctively a leader in the city's educational system, set- 
ting standards and giving tone to the whole school system. When 
Portland comes to have a million people such a school might 
then prove to be desirable, but at present such an expense is 
unwarranted. Even then it probably would be wiser and cheaper, 



CHAP. IV. PART I— SELECTION OF TEACHERS 45 

and probably would result in a better output, if a working agree- 
ment to give such preparation for the city were made with Reed 
Institute, after some such plan as is now carried out in Cincin- 
nati and Pittsburg with the universities located in these two 
cities. For the present it would be much wiser to add another 
Assistant Superintendent of Schools, as is recommended on page 
39, to help look after new teachers and to act as an educational 
critic and student for the system, as is suggested in the preceding 
chapter, and apply on his salary the money which is now being 
spent on high school teaching courses. 

Instead of trying to train its own teachers the school dis- 
trict should aim to attract to its schools the best teachers from 
elsewhere, — near or far. If its own girls can prove themselves 
to be superior teachers, they should be drawn back to the city 
by means of better salaries. They should distinctly prove them- 
selves to be such elsewhere, however, before coming into the 
Portland system. The Portland schools in no way exist for the 
purpose of providing teaching positions for Portland girls, and 
Portland girls should enter the work on the same basis as girls 
from elsewhere. In the same way the best trained teachers from 
the best eastern normal schools and city school systems ought 
to be attracted to the Portland schools, and anything which would 
tend to impede or prevent their entry ought to be discouraged. 
The best teachers in the system today, taken as a body, are 
these eastern teachers, and the way ought to be kept open for 
more of them to enter. 

The Superintendent in the Employment of Teachers 

A city the size of Portland ought also to give to its Super- 
intendent the power to hunt up good teachers from elsewhere, 
and to invite them to enter the school system without waiting 
for a formal application. The cities which handle their schools 
best give such authority to their Superintendent, putting the 
selection of teachers for the schools on much the same basis 
that colleges and universities place the selection of their pro- 
fessors. A university president who did not feel that he had 
almost full authority to hunt out and invite men to come to his 
institution would feel himself in a very undesirable predicament, 
and probably would resign and leave. The strength of the col- 
leges and universities has come largely as the Boards of Trustees 
have placed the full burden of selecting professors, and fixing 
their salaries, within certain limits,* upon the president of the 
institution, the Board merely formally ratifying his actions in 
such matters. 

In our best managed city school systems similar conditions 
today prevail, and superintendents feel authorized to offer prom- 
ising teachers positions without consulting their Boards of School 



46 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Directors first, and having to go over the whole matter with 
them. As was stated in Chapter III, this is the work which the 
Board of School Directors knows least how to handle; the work 
where they make the most serious blunders, and often without 
knowing that they have blundered; the work where they create 
the most bitter antagonisms; and the work which they ought to 
let alone. If there are any expert functions which a Superin- 
tendent of Schools ought to handle they are the outlining of the 
course of study, the selection of the text-books and supplemental 
books to be used, and the recommendation of teachers for em- 
ployment, promotion, and dismissal. He may make some mis- 
takes in such matters, but when he does he will try to correct 
them; a Board in handling such matters will make many blun- 
ders, and scarcely know that they have blundered. A Superin- 
tendent who knows his work has a definite educational policy 
in such matters; a Board usually has no policy, and vacillates 
to and fro in response to popular pressure. 

In selecting good teachers for the schools a superintendent 
of schools who knows his business is rendering one of the most 
expert services he can render a city. He should be given plenty 
of opportunity to exercise his judgment, and, in resisting the 
pressure of the friends of the less competent, he should be uni- 
formly upheld. If he can not do these things wisely and well, 
he ought to give place to some one who can, but the Board ought 
not to assume such functions themselves. It would be a most 
wholesome sign of strength in the Superintendent of Schools, 
and a good omen for the school system, if, while admitting the 
legal rights of the Board in the matter, he were to seriously 
challenge their educational right to select any teachers for the 
system whom he did not recommend. He, in turn, if he is wise, 
will confer with his principals, and in the high schools and the 
needs of the Portland school district by first locating the city, 
trade school the principal should be entrusted with rather large 
authority in the recommendation to the Superintendent of teach- 
ers for their schools. In cases where there are good heads of 
departments, the principal and Superintendent should make them 
feel that their advice is wanted also. While the Superintendent 
must finally pass on the recommendations, and transmit proper 
ones to the Board for action, he will be wise if he seeks the 
advice of his subordinates. All such responsibility tends to 
develop strength and character in the school system. 

The Effect of Board Control 

That the Board of School Directors for the Portland school 
district, past and present, has not handled the selection of teach- 
ers in such a manner as to develop such strength and character 
in the system was evident from the inquiries and examinations 
which we made. Their deep interest in the management of the 



CHAP. IV. PART I— SELECTION OF TEACHERS 47 

schools has led them astray, and wholly unintentionally they 
have played too prominent a part. Superintendents, principals, 
and heads of departments in the high schools alike left the 
impression with us that they had but little to say as to the selec- 
tion of their working staffs. The effect of such Board activity 
will almost inevitably show itself in the schools, and we found 
plenty of such evidence there. 

We saw some most excellent teachers; many very good 
teachers; some others who, with proper help and under proper 
pressure, might still be made into good teachers; and a certain 
number of others who, it seemed to us, ought never to have been 
employed at all, and certainly ought not now to be retained. 
They lacked teaching personality, energy, force, and adaptability 
to the work of instructing children. To a trained eye this was 
evident after a few moments' observation. In some kinds of 
schools, and in some places, they might prove fairly satisfactory, 
but the city of Portland, for the salaries it pays and with the 
work it has to do, ought to do very much better. 

We tried, in many cases, to find out more about such teach- 
ers. Sometimes no one seemed to know how they got into the 
school system. Many times the pupil-teacher system was to 
blame for their being there. Other times a principal would tell 
us, in semi-confidence, that she was supposed to be Director X's 
or Y's protege; or a head of a department in a high school would 
decline responsibility for the conditions found on the ground 
that his or her recommendation had been ignored by the Super- 
intendent and Board. The following conversation with an ele- 
mentary school principal, which is from notes made afterward, 
is typical of a number of such conversations. 

Q. "Do vou consider Miss A, in room No. X, a good teacher?" 

A. "No." 

Q. "Do vou consider her a reasonably satisfactory teacher, 
then?" 

A. "No, I can't say that I do." 

Q. "Can you make her into a satisfactory teacher?" 

A. "I doubt if that can be done." 

Q. "Have you ever called the attention of the Superintendent 
to her work?" 

A. "I have the Assistant Superintendent." 

Q. "What does he do, or suggest?" 

A. "Nothing." 

Q. "The Board calls you before it each year, for reports on 
your teachers, does it not?" 

A. "Yes." 

Q. "Have vou ever reported the woman as unsatisfactory?" 

A. "Yes twice." 

Q. "What was done then?" 

A. "Nothing." 

Q. "Did the Superintendent approve or disapprove of your 
adverse report?" 

A. "I don't know; he said nothing while I was present. 

Q. "Have you reported adversely against any other teacher? 



48 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

A. "Yes." 

Q. "What happened then?" 

A. "Once a teacher was transferred to another building; 
another time the Board dropped the teacher, and then reinstated 
her, when she got her friends busy, and put her back in my 
school; another time I was virtually put on trial to prove my 
charges, instead of the teacher being dropped; and in two or 
three other cases the teacher was continued in the school, ap- 
parently with no action taken." 

Q. "Then the Board doesn't pay much attention to your 
recommendations?" 

A. "I have never felt that it did." 

Q. "What is the object in calling you before it each year, 
for reports as to your teachers?" 

A. "I don't know." 

Q. "Are you exceptional, in this respect, among the school 
principals?" 

A. "I don't think so; I think I fare as 'well as the average 
principal." 

Q. "Do you have anything to say as to the selection of your 
teachers?" 

A. "Practically nothing." 

Q. "Do you report against many teachers each year?" 

A. "No, I have practically ceased to report against teachers, 
unless they are very unsatisfactory." 

Q. "Why?" 

A. "Because I never know whether or not it will do any 
good, and I don't want to make enemies, or needlessly put myself 
on trial." 

Q. "Do the principals generally feel that the Superintendent 
supports them in their adverse recommendations, or not?" 

A. "We don't feel that he has much more to say about the 
matter than we have." 

Q. "Would you feel that you could improve the instruction 
in your school, and make a better school, if the Board and the 
Superintendent placed more authority and responsibility on you, 
and held you responsible for the successful conduct of your 
school?" 

A. "There is no doubt as to that." 

Good Rules of Action 

The following principles and rules of action, principles and 
rules evolved from the best experiences of other cities, ought to 
apply to the selection, promotion, and retention of teachers in 
a city such as Portland: — 

1. The schools exist solely for the education of children, 
and in no sense of the word to afford places for teachers. Only 
the best education should be provided, and the best education 
can be provided only when the best teachers obtainable are in 
the schools. 

2. The question of where a teacher comes from is abso- 
lutely immaterial, and "home girls" have no prior claim whatever 
to the positions. The schools exist to carry out a state purpose, 



CHAP. IV. PART I— SELECTION OF TEACHERS 49 

and should not be made local family affairs, in any sense of 
the word. 

3. The selection of teachers is a professional function, 
which professional experts ought to handle. The Board of 
School Directors is not competent to handle such a function in 
the best manner, and poor results almost invariably follow their 
attempt to do so. 

4. In the case of the Portland school district, the Board of 
School Directors should refuse longer to take the initiative in 
the selection, promotion, or dismissal of teachers, principals, or 
supervisors, or to see candidates for such positions, but should 
instead act only upon the recommendation of the Superintendent 
of Schools. The final responsibility for all such actions ought 
to be put squarely on his shoulders. If he can not handle this 
wisely and well, then he should soon give place to some one 
who can. 

5. The Board should also cease to give hearings to prin- 
cipals and supervisors, or require reports as to teachers from 
them. All matters relating to instruction should be referred to 
the Superintendent and his assistants; principals of schools 
should deal with them, and not with members of the Board. 

6. The Board should also cease to interview candidates for 
positions, or permit themselves to be interviewed by such, or 
their friends. In some of our best organized cities the Boards 
have had it printed on the back of every application blank that 
applicants, or their friends, are not^ privileged to call on the 
Board members individually to press their claims for appoint- 
ment, and that the doing so, or the attempt to employ any per- 
sonal, political, social, or religious influence to secure an ap- 
pointment, will be regarded as unprofessional conduct and debar 
the candidate from further consideration. 

7. The recommendation of teachers for appointment should 
come solely from the Superintendent of Schools. In selecting 
those for recommendation, the Superintendent ought to provide 
that rather large consultative authority should be given to the 
principals, heads of departments in the , high schools, trade 
school, and the special supervisors, and, in lesser degree, to the 
principals of the elementary schools. 

8. Because of the specialization of work in the high schools 
and in the trade school, all teachers for such should be selected 
with reference to their ability to fill certain particular positions. 
The same conditions ought also to apply to the selection of teach- 
ers for such intermediate schools as may be created. 

9. For the selection of teachers for the elementary schools 
one of two plans might be followed. Either (1) the Superin- 
tendent of Schools should select teachers for recommendation to 



50 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

the Board from a comparative list of applicants, compiled some- 
what as such lists have been in the past; or (2) the Superintend- 
ent could constitute the Assistant Superintendents and two or 
three principals, together with himself, an examining committee 
to meet formally all applicants, at designated times, such as 
Saturday mornings during certain months, to pass on their 
apparent personality and fitness for teaching. Each member of 
the committee would mark in percentage his estimate of the fit- 
ness of each person so met. The professional preparation and 
experience of each would be looked up carefully by the clerk 
to the Superintendent, under his direction, and the average of 
the two kinds of evidence would form the candidate's rating on 
the list of applicants, from which nominations for appointment 
would be made by the Superintendent. / 

The advantage of such a plan as (2) is with the local appli- 
cants, as it tends to eliminate entirely personal, social, or politi- 
cal influence in the selection of teachers, and to place local 
applicants on a par with those from a distance; its disadvan- 
tages are that, unless the committee meets during the summer, or 
delegates the Superintendent to act for it, some of the best of the 
Eastern teachers would be cut out by it. 

10. No one should be employed who is not certified to by 
the health supervisor, or some physician designated by the Board, 
as possessing sound health, sufficient bodily vigor to do effective 
teaching, and free from hearing defects and any communicable 
disease. The Superintendent should satisfy himself that the 
applicant is of high personal character. (See also Chapter XIV, 
Subdivision 6.) 

11. For admission to candidacy for a position in the 
schools, the city might reasonably require of all: — 

a) For Elementary Schools 

Either (1) graduation from a four-year high school course, 
or its equivalent, followed by graduation from a standard nor- 
mal school and one year of actual teaching experience; or (2) 
graduation from a four-year high school course or its equivalent, 
followed by two years of distinctly successful teaching experi- 
ence, and some evidence of professional training and study. 

b) For Intermediate Schools, Should Such Be Established 

Either a), (1), above, followed by at least two years of col- 
lege work, with preparation along the special lines to be taught; 
or still better college graduation, with practice-teaching experi- 
ence or one year of class-room experience; or the promotion of 
eminently successful teachers within the system, favoring those, 
other things being equal, who have had a year or two of college 
work, or who have traveled abroad. 



CHAP. IV. PART II— TENURE OF TEACHERS 51 

c) For High Schools 

Graduation from a college or university of standing, and 
evidence of special preparation for the particular work to be 
done. 

d) Certification 

Instead of examining its teachers, as is now done, it might 
be much wiser to rely entirely on the state or county certifica- 
tion and save the energy now expended in conducting a separate 
examination. Instead, if any examination is felt to be desirable, 
such could presuppose the legal certificate required by law, and 
be made strictly professional in character. 

12. After employment, the Superintendent and Board of 
Directors might reasonably expect all teachers and principals to 
do some studying each year, after some such plan as is suggested 
in recommendation 11, under Chapter III, as a means of main- 
taining the efficiency of the system. The Board might also with 
propriety require teachers who are deficient in education and 
training to improve their scholarship, along designated lines (as, 
for example, the sciences, agriculture, or special branches), with 
a view to being able to give better instruction in such subjects 
in the schools. The Board might also with propriety provide 
some or all of such instruction for its teachers, or arrange with 
some institution, such as Beed College, to do so for it. 

2. TENUBE OF TEACHEBS 
The New Permanent-Tenure Law 

The Board of School Directors for the Portland school dis- 
trict could carry out all of these principles in the selection of 
teachers, under the law as it now is, but if they were to attempt 
to dismiss any teachers, except for open immorality or rank in- 
subordination, the Board would find itself face to face with a 
new law, passed by the last Oregon legislature, which provides 
for practically permanent tenure for all teachers, principals, and 
supervisors. This law applies only to the Portland school dis- 
trict, and not to any other school district in Oregon. It is an 
example of vicious special legislation, under the guise of a gen- 
eral law. 

This new law provides that teachers, after two years of serv- 
ice, can not be dismissed except after formal trial before the 
Board, and with formal written charges served, notices of trial, 
and attorneys present. This means that the person (Superin- 
tendent or principal) bringing the charges, and each supervisory 
officer endorsing them, will be put on trial by the accused 
teacher's attorneys, and not the teacher herself or himself. 
Almost any attorney can create enough errors, during the trial 
before the Board, on which to appeal to the courts if the Board 



52 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



dismisses the teacher, and with almost a certainty that the courts 
will regard the preponderance of common evidence and the 
technical flaws as more important than the professional evidence 
and the interests of the children in the schools. The almost 
certain result is reinstatement, with full back pay. The law is 
not essentially different from the San Francisco or the Baltimore 
laws, and the School Boards in both places have practically 
given up trying to dismiss anyone, however incompetent they 
may be. The inevitable result on these systems has been bad, 
very bad, and the same result will inevitably come in time to 
Portland if this thoroughly bad law is not repealed. 

The teachers of the city have doubtless been actuated, in 
securing this law, by what they have regarded as rank injustice. 
As was pointed out in the preceding chapter, the system of 
supervision has been inspectional rather than helpful; the prin- 
cipals have too often lacked the helpful qualities which princi- 
pals ought to possess; the secret semi-annual written reports of 
the principals to the Board on the efficiency of their teachers, 
and the formal annual conferences with the Board to the same 
end, have served to keep teachers in a state of nervous tension; 
the requirement of an annual application from each teacher, as 
a prerequisite to retention, has doubtless been very irritating to 
many; and the formal annual election, with the constant fear of 
being dropped, have all alike tended to aggravate the situation. 
As a matter of fact, the Board of School Directors has not 
accorded the teachers in the schools as much permanence of 
tenure as is given to steam or electric railroad employees, clerks 
in stores or offices, or general business employees. Such persons 
do not have to apply over and over to hold their places, nor stand 
the chances of an annual re-election. Neither do policemen, 
firemen, nor city hall employees. In the schools, however, 
instead of the burden of dismissal for cause being placed on the 
Superintendent and the Board, every teacher has been automat- 
ically out of a position at the end of each year, and the whole 
burden of getting re-elected has been placed on the teacher's 
shoulders. 

From numerous talks with teachers, principals, and others, 
we were convinced that the over-activity of the Board in the 
management of the teaching force has been largely responsible 
for the present law. Actually, the Board has dropped but very 
few teachers each year, and after doing so has turned around 
and reinstated from 10 to 30 per cent of those dropped. The 
Board has given the impression, though, of great activity in the 
matter, and this has kept many teachers in a state of needless 
alarm. "When this new law was proposed it would have been 
wise had the Board made certain desirable concessions. Perhaps 
this unwise legislation could have been headed off by so doing. 
It may be urged also, that the teachers should have tried for con- 



CHAP. IV. PART II— TENURE OF TEACHERS 53 



cessions from the Board, and not have rushed to the opposite 
extreme of a law providing for practical life tenure. 

A Middle-ground Position 

Between these two positions there is a desirable middle 
ground, and this ought yet to be taken by both sides, and taken 
in the interests of the children for whom the schools exist. When 
a new teacher enters the system in any capacity, she (or he) 
should be under observation for two or three years, varying 
somewhat with different teachers, during which lime there 
should be an annual re-election. After this probationary period, 
he or she should then either: (1) be re-elected for a period of 
years, say four or five; or, perhaps better still, (2) be placed on 
indefinite contract. Indefinite contract would mean that annual 
elections would cease for all time; that no teacher or principal 
would be dropped, except after being advised of deficiencies, 
and being given a chance to improve; and that the Board, after 
such advice had failed, would be able to notify a teacher, for- 
mally in writing, that it desired to terminate the contract at the 
close of the school year. Teachers who did not receive such 
advice and notice would never need to give a thought to the 
question of re-election, as they would have practically perma- 
nent tenure. 

This middle ground is equally just to both sides. The old 
conditions were not just to the teachers, and the new conditions 
are not just to the children, who certainly have rights as well as 
teachers. This middle ground proposed reserves to the Board 
of School Directors the right, on the advice of its educational 
officers, and after helpful offices have failed, to quietly remove 
from the schools those who are no longer fit to be there. To 
say that the Board has such power now, under the new law and 
by formal trial, is to cherish a delusion. The machinery for 
such action is of course provided, but it can probably seldom if 
ever be carried to a successful conclusion. Even if it should be, 
the notoriety given and the bitterness engendered by such trials 
are demoralizing to a school system, and ought to be avoided 
by both teachers and Board. Under the proposed conditions of 
tenure the exercise of the right to terminate the contract would 
naturally be used but seldom, for the reason that the whole con- 
dition of employment would be changed, but the retention of 
the right to such exercise by the Board, acting on the advice of 
its educational officers, would be good for both teachers and 
the schools. In the case of principals the right might need to 
be exercised more frequently, for the highest efficiency in such 
positions must be insisted upon. 

That every teacher who is reasonably efficient today will 
continue to be so ten years from now, everyone who has had 
much to do with teachers or knows human nature knows will 



54 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

not be the case. Good teaching demands keeping alive and 
keeping growing. Teaching, too, is constantly changing in 
nature and scope. Every decade new needs appear, and addi- 
tional scholarship is demanded of teachers. To keep abreast 
of needs means constant growth. A few teachers will keep 
themselves professionally alive, even under adverse conditions; 
most teachers do their best when well led, and when the condi- 
tions favor professional growth; many others do their best work 
only under a constant spur. Such is only human nature, and 
teachers are no exceptions to human laws. Perhaps one of the 
surest means for producing future inefficiency in a teaching 
force is to take away the spur to growth, activity, and efficiency 
by providing life-tenure or its equivalent for all. A business 
so important as public education, where personal growth is so 
necessary to meet changing conditions, can not be successfully 
conducted or kept efficient on such a basis of employment. If 
we want to develop a self-satisfied and unprogressive teaching 
force, to ruin our American public schools, and eventually to 
turn education, for those who can afford it, over largely to the 
private and parochial schools to handle, then a life-tenure guar- 
antee for teachers and principals is one of the surest means to 
such an end. Life-tenure for all efficient teachers there should 
be, but it should come as a deserved reward for efficient service, 
and not as a guaranteed right. 

As was stated in Chapter II, perhaps no more important duty 
rested on the Superintendent of Schools and the Board of School 
Directors, during the past year, than that of preventing, by 
studying the causes, making the necessary concessions, and, if 
necessary, appearing in a body before the Legislature in oppo- 
sition to the permanent-tenure law; and one of the most impor- 
tant duties still ahead of them is the repeal of this law and the 
enacting, in its stead, of some such provision as is contained in 
the suggested bill in Appendix A. 

Right Principles of Action 

In dealing with the question of the tenure of teachers, cer- 
tain principles seem thoroughly sound, and ought to apply. 
These may be summarized as follows: — 

1. All new teachers, or principals, when first employed, 
should be assigned to positions where they are most likely to 
succeed and grow, and for a year or two should be under the 
special observation of the Superintendent, his assistants, and the 
principal. The purpose should be to make every effort to de- 
velop all new stock into as strong teaching material as can be 
done, and much depends on the right start. 

2. If the first year, or the first term, demonstrates a hope- 
less condition, and that a mistake in selection has been made, 
the Superintendent should be permitted to ask for a resignation. 



CHAP. IV. PART II— TENURE OF TEACHERS 55 

If, on the contrary, good progress has been made and a reason- 
able hope exists, another year of trial may be given with 
advantage. 

3. In case temperamental differences for which the teacher 
is not to blame have interfered with success, the teacher should 
be given another chance by transfer to another school. Some- 
times a transfer, as a form of second trial, might be given for 
other reasons. All assignments and transfers of teachers should 
be under the direction of the Superintendent and his assistants, 
the Board merely employing teachers for the district. 

4. During the trial period, which ought to cover from two 
to three years, varying somewhat with different individuals, 
annual reappointments should be made, on the recommendation 
of the Superintendent of Schools. After the probationary period 
has been passed, either election for long periods, or indeter- 
minate contracts, preferably the latter, should be substituted, and 
the annual election for such teachers discontinued. 

Indeterminate contracts should continue from year to year, 
without any action on the part of either Board or teacher. 
Teachers not notified of deficiencies by the Superintendent or 
principal by say March first, and further notified in writing, 
by say June first, that the Board desires to terminate the contract 
at the close of the school year, would be considered as retained 
in service and need give no thought to the matter of tenure. 

5. The Superintendent ought not to consider charges of 
general incompetency from principals against their teachers, 
unless he is convinced that the principals have talked over the 
difficulties fully with their teachers, and have made a persistent 
effort to help them to succeed. If the weaker teachers felt that 
their principals were earnestly trying to help them, and if such 
teachers found that Board members refused to listen to their 
complaints and referred them back to the Superintendent of 
Schools, they would soon either make an earnest effort to co- 
operate in becoming efficient, or they would resign. If a prin- 
cipal can not or will not render such helpful assistance to his 
teachers, his (or her) own competency ought to be inquired into 
by the Superintendent. 

6. The Board of School Directors should discontinue its 
present plan of giving hearings to principals first, and then to 
aggrieved teachers later on, and concentrate all such matters in 
the hands of the Superintendent of Schools and the Assistant 
Superintendents. All charges of incompetency should be ap- 
proved or disapproved by this body; all hearings should be con- 
ducted by them; and the Board should accept their recommenda- 
tions. If charges of incompetency are approved, the Superin- 
tendent should be empowered to request the resignation of the 
teacher involved. If a teacher is transferred for cause, a re- 



56 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

quest for a second transfer from a second principal ought, in 
most cases, automatically to end the matter. The interests of 
the children in the schools are too important to keep weak 
teachers in the schools through sympathy. The sympathy is 
continually placed on the wrong side of the case. 

7. While some way of quietly eliminating the unfit, or 
those who will not keep up with educational needs, is 
essential if school systems are not to deteriorate, it must, 
nevertheless, be remembered that the great object in school 
administration, so far as it relates to the teaching force, should 
be to make as high a grade of teacher as is possible out of the 
large amount of medium grade material which is employed; to 
keep teachers professionally alive and growing; to stimulate 
them to new intellectual and professional activity; and not 
merely to order teachers about, dismiss the ones who can not 
swim alone, and then take a new chance. 

8. Growth is painful to most persons, and to some growth 
seems impossible. Because of this perfectly human trait, a few 
dismissals, from time to time, will be inevitable, but the number 
of such ought to be very small. If no dismissals are possible, or 
only possible after much turmoil, the system will deteriorate 
and the taxpayers' money will be wasted. 

9. Once a teacher is dropped from the system, after careful 
consideration, he or she ought not to be reinstated. Almost 
every such action is unwise, and the effect of such action on the 
system is bad. 

10. The Board ought to plan to enlarge the present pension 
system, either alone or in connection with the state, for the good 
of the school system as well as for humane reasons, and with a 
view to being able, ultimately, to retire honorably from the serv- 
ice those who have become too old and have fallen too far behind 
to longer render efficient service. The more rapid the develop- 
ment of the schools along new lines, the more will be the need 
of retiring those who can not longer grow. 



CHAP. V. SALARIES OF TEACHERS 



57 



Chapter V 

THE SALARIES OF TEACHERS 
Comparative Salary Schedules 

The plan employed by a city in paying its teachers has much 
to do with the degree of efficiency and zeal for growth which 
in time comes to characterize a teaching body, and a wise 
administrative policy will so regulate the monetary and promo- 
tional rewards of teachers as to place a certain premium on 
personal effort and progress. 

The teachers and principals of Portland are paid according 
to a regular salary schedule, the salary paid being, in large part, 
a product of the nature of the work, or the size of the school, 
and the number of years of service. The beginning of a merit 
system exists in the provision that the maximum salary shall not 
be paid to a teacher or principal whose work is not satisfactory. 
How this salary schedule compares with the salaries paid to 
teachers in other Pacific Coast cities may be seen from the fol- 
lowing comparative table, compiled for those Western and Pacific 
Coast cities with which Portland may be expected to have to 
compete for the best Eastern teachers. 

Table 3 
Comparative Salary Schedules in Western Cities 





Teachers. 


Principals. 


CITY. 


Minim'm 
Salary. 


M'xim'm 
Salary. 


Minim'm 
Salary. 


M'xim'm 
Salary. 


1. Elementary schools. 

Oakland, Cal 

PORTLAND, ORE. ... 

Salt Lake City, Utah 

San Diego, Cal 

Seattle, Wash 


$840 
840 
744 
780 
800 
725 
600 
792 
840 
840 
600 

1080 
1200 
1260 
1080 
960 


$1140 
1200 
1200 
1200 
1100 

1100 

1020 
1032 
1224 
1110 
960 

1500 
1560 
1500 
1200 
1800 


$1620 
1320 
1200 
1500 
1200 

1050 

1200 
1320 
1200 
1140 

2340 


$2160 
2280 
2400 
2400 
1900 

2150 

2004 
2260 
2040 


Tacoma, Wash 

2. Intermediate schools. 
Rerkeley, Cal 

Oakland, Cal 


1800 

3000 
3000 
2400 


San Diego, Cal 

San Francisco, Cal 


2004 
2460 



58 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Table 3 — Continued 
Comparative Salary Schedules in Western Cities 





Teachers. Principals. 


CITY. 


Minim'm 
Salary. 


M'xim'm 
Salary. 


Minim'm 
Salary. 


j M'xim'm 
Salary. 


3. High schools. 

Oakland, Cal 

Pasadena, Cal 


1200 
1080 
1200 
1140 
1100 

1150 

850 
1200 
1500 
1020 

810 

1500 
1800 
1800 
i. 1560 
1440 
1700 


1440 
1500 
1560 
1500 
1600 

1350 

1400 
1524 
1680 
1560 
1350 

1800 
2000 
2160 
1800 
1800 
2000 

1600 

1600 
1692 
2040 
1800 


3000 
3000 


2900 
3000 
3600 
3300 


PORTLAND, ORE. ... 

Salt Lake City, Utah 

San Francisco, Cal 

Seattle, Wash 


2500 


3000 


2700 
2400 
1500 


2808 
3300 
3600 


4. Heads of departments 
in high schools. 

Los Angeles (sub-heads) 
Oakland, Cal 

PORTLAND, ORE. . . . 

Salt Lake City, Utah, . 
San Diego, Cal 


2500 








Seattle, Wash 


1710 















The Portland Salaries 

The feeling of all the members of the Survey staff who con- 
sidered the question of teaching and salaries was that the salaries 
paid teachers in Portland were both too high and too low. For 
some of the teachers seen and for some of the principals, both 
in the elementary schools and in the high schools, the amounts 
paid were much too high for the quality of service at present 
rendered. On the other hand, the salaries of many of those seen 
were below their real worth, and below what would be paid 
them for a similar grade of work in other Western cities. 

Averaged up, the salaries in the elementary schools are not 
too high. Compared with the salaries of firemen, policemen, 
city-hall employees, and school janitors, the salaries for ele- 
mentary teachers are low. For the seventh and eighth grades, 
which ought to form the last two years of the elementary school, 
and for the ninth grade, which ought to form the first year of 



CHAP. V. SALARIES OF TEACHERS 59 

the high school, the salaries are below what ought to be paid if 
these years were grouped into a series of Intermediate Schools, 
taught by well trained teachers, and according to a departmental 
instead of a grade method of work. (See Chapters IX and XL) 

For the high schools, the salaries are too low, especially for 
the higher positions, and these schools are continually losing 
some of their most promising and most useful teachers, because 
they have reached the Portland maximum salary and can not see 
a living on it. The demands on high school instructors are con- 
tinually advancing; increased training is continually being 
demanded; and increasing salaries, and a good series of posi- 
tions, ought to be provided to enable the high schools to retain 
the best of their teachers. Otherwise, in time, the only older 
and more experienced teachers who will remain in the schools 
will be the poorest ones, — the ones who have had no opportuni- 
ties to go elsewhere, or who have seen no chance of getting 
away. These will fill the important places and block the way, 
so that there will be fewer and fewer chances for bright young 
teachers to advance to a position carrying a living wage. The 
result will inevitably be mediocre high schools. 

A Uniform Salary Schedule 

To merely advance the general level of salaries, and then 
continue to advance all teachers on the basis of length of service, 
while perhaps better than no increases, is, nevertheless, a poor 
use of funds. A much better plan is to place some emphasis on 
education, professional growth, study, travel, and skill in in- 
struction, and to give the rewards so as not only to pay the most 
to those deserving the most, but also to encourage personal 
growth on the part of all not hopelessly dead. In any large 
school system a plan of salary rewards, in part based on personal 
growth, is desirable, and, in a school system where practical 
life-tenure of employment has been instituted, some such plan 
is a necessity if growth is to be encouraged and efficiency 
secured. 

The uniform salary schedule for all presupposes that all of 
the same rank and experience are approximately of equal 
worth, — a condition that is never found. Not only does such a 
condition not exist, but instead, very wide variations in worth 
among teachers are commonly found, often in the same school. 
Portland is no exception to other cities in this respect, and to 
show the variations in ability observed, the following extracts 
from notes, made after visiting the work of certain teachers, 
are introduced here. They are snap shots, to be sure, but the 
judgments are probably not far wrong, and illustrate well that 



60 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

differences in pay under the Portland salary schedule, and dif- 
ferences in worth, are not one and the same. 

"Teacher A. Good personality, manner, and attitude toward 
children. Does her work very conscientiously and reasonably 
well, but without much apparent insight or reason why. An 
average teacher now, but might, with the right kind of help from 
her principal or the Assistant Superintendent, become a most 
excellent teacher. Left to herself she has about reached her 
limit, and in another ten years will be worth less than now. 
Present salary $1,050. Not worth over $900 now, but could be 
made to be worth $1,200 to $1,300 with proper aid, encourage- 
ment, and study. Present efficiency about 80#, and probably de- 
clining slowly." 

"Teacher B. Work highly mechanical and entirely lacking 
in intelligent insight. Does things because they are in the books, 
and without a reason why. Work seen very weak. Poor man- 
ner; poor voice; slow; and generally inefficient. Pupils appar- 
ently making poor progress, and apparently copying her slow 
and inefficient manner. Product of the pupil-teacher system. 
Knows nothing else, and probably now too set in her ways ever 
to be made into anything more than a very mediocre teacher. 
Present efficiency about 40# of what her pay, $1,050, ought to 
purchase for the city. In many systems she would not be re- 
tained, and no efficient Superintendent elsewhere would em- 
ploy her." 

"Teacher C. One of the best teachers seen here or else- 
where. Quick; alive; good restrained energy; good sense of 
humor; and does her work with despatch. Every pupil kept alive 
and interested in the class-room work. Questions and answers 
from the class showed that they were being trained to reason. 
Paid $1,100 and worth $1,500 at least. Would make an excellent 
intermediate school teacher. Efficiency 100#; in fact more ef- 
ficient than a city might reasonably expect. A mature woman, 
professionally alive." 

"Teacher D. Poor material; poor voice; slow; heavy; inef- 
ficient worker. Might do very well in the country, for she seemed 
to like her work, but her reaction time is too slow for a good 
city position. Paid $825, which is too much for her. Does not 
keep the pupils working up to 50# of their possibilities, and they 
learn bad habits from her. Another product of the pupil-teacher 
system." 

"Teacher E. Quick; clever; good humor; sees everything, 
but knows what not to see. A splendid teacher. Pupils making 
excellent progress under her. Paid $1,050, and worth much 
more; certainly worth as much as any policeman in the city." 

"Teacher F. Mediocre material. Room close and up to 75° 
in temperature, and had not noticed it. Three children in seats 
where their feet could not touch the floor, and had not noticed 
that. Seemed surprised when these things were called to her 
attention. Seemed weak in organizing ability, and in ability to 
instruct. Very sure of herself, however, and seemingly resentful 
of criticism from a man. Too old now to be taught much, and 



CHAP. V. SALARIES OF TEACHERS 61 

probably will always remain a mediocre teacher. Probably faith- 
ful and conscientious, but professionally dead. Paid the maxi- 
mum salary, and not worth more than the minimum." 

"Teacher G. Head of a department in a high school. One 
of the best teachers in the subject have ever seen. Other teach- 
ers in same department seemed equally alive and vigorous. Good 
selections by some one. Questioning excellent, management of 
the class and room the same. Every pupil alert and watchful. 
Pupils learning excellent life habits, as well as subject matter 
under this teacher. Would make an excellent teacher of the sub- 
ject in a normal school or college. Paid $1,600; easily worth 
$2,000 to $2,200." 

"Teacher H. Also head of a department in a high school. 
One of the slowest, dullest, and most ineffective teachers have 
ever seen. Extremely conservative; professionally dead; and de- 
partment lacking in life and snap. Pupils under the teacher 
making but little progress, and learning very bad life habits. 
Pupils inattentive; order poor; teaching not 25# etiicient. Paid 
$1,600; would be a good investment for the city to give this 
teacher $1,000 a year as a pension, for past services, and replace 
him by a man of energy and capacity." 

"Principal X. Excellent principal. Knows his school, his 
pupils, and the details of his work throughout. Apparently knows 
how to do executive work without getting lost in the details. 
From questions, find him a student of education, and anxious 
to grow and advance. Apparently reads much, and keeps him- 
self up with what is being done elsewhere. Would make a good 
superintendent of schools in a smaller city. Paid $1,850; easily 
worth $2,500." 

"Principal Y. Has had training enough to be a much bet- 
ter principal than he is. Seems intellectually lazy. School largely 
what his teachers make it. Supervision of building and drills 
good; of the work of his teachers poor. Seems to know little 
about the details of the class-room work. Needs to be made 
to do more thinking, and get to work. Unless the Superintendent 
does this soon, he will be of little value in ten years more. Paid 
$1,900; ought to be transferred to about a $i,400 school until 
he gets to work, and does some thinking about what he is 
there for." 

The Portland Teaching Force 

Half of the illustrative cases selected are of good teachers 
and principals, and half are of poor ones. Just what percentage 
of the whole teaching force is of the poorer type the Survey 
staff can not say, for the reason that they did not attempt to 
see many teachers at work. The above merely represent cases 
seen, and of which there are doubtless many similar. The feel- 
ing of the members of the staff was, however, that the number 
of really poor teachers in the schools was quite small, and the 
number of really good teachers was relatively large; but that 
the remainder, quite a considerable body, represented teachers 
of average ability, or above, from whom the school department 
is not, at present, realizing more than 60? to 80? of their possi- 
ble efficiency. This did not seem to be so much because the 



62 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

teachers were unwilling as because of other conditions inherent 
in the kind of supervisory assistance provided, and in the present 
methods of paying teachers. In hours of work and in the faith- 
ful discharge of assigned duties, all of the teachers seemed actu- 
ated by a remarkably willing spirit. The chief defect of many 
seemed to be in educational insight and professional interest, 
and the force, as a whole, seemed to lack stimuli to professional 
activity and growth. 

It is along the lines of awakening greater interest and in- 
sight on the part of the teachers and principals, and of develop- 
ing a greater personal desire to keep growing, that it seemed to 
us that reforms in dealing with the teachers in the Portland 
school district ought to be directed. Inspection, compulsion, and 
rules and regulations are almost valueless here; helpful leader- 
ship must be substituted instead. In Chapter HI this need of 
helpful leadership was emphasized. But helpful leadership can 
do only about so much; to help teachers most they must be stimu- 
lated to help themselves. To assist helpful leadership to do its 
work, both promotions on merit and monetary rewards should 
be added, to be given to those who do most to increase their 
personal efficiency and to advance the highest interests of the 
schools. 

Payments Based on Merit and Efficiency 

The beginnings of a merit system already exist in Portland 
in the provision that, to reach the maximum salary, a teacher 
or principal must be adjudged to be doing satisfactory work. 
According to the present plan of marking teachers (A, B, or C), 
this means either A or B. With the Board of School Directors 
elected for five-year terms, and only one each year, and hence 
with a Board not immediately responsive to any popular clamor 
which objecting teachers might raise, Portland is especially well 
situated to extend this merit system, and to offer its largest mone- 
tary rewards and best positions to those who do most to increase 
their personal efficiency. 

The details of any plan for rewarding effort and growth 
ought to be worked out with some care before its adoption, but 
the following suggestions indicate certain lines along which Port- 
land might do this by changing somewhat its methods of paying 
teachers and principals. 

I. Elementary School Teachers 

(First six grades, and seventh and eighth grades when con- 
ducted as grade work.) 

1. If the regulation for admission to the system, as sug- 
gested in the first part of Chapter IV, subdivision 11, page 50, 
were put into force, the present minimum salaries are not too 
high. All elementary school teachers should then advance auto- 



CHAP. V. SALARIES OF TEACHERS 63 

matically, after passing the probationary period, up to $950 or 
$1,000, at which increases would ordinarily stop. All teachers 
now having higher salaries to retain their present salaries. 

2. Additional automatic increases to be granted to all ele- 
mentary teachers, as follows: 

a) For attendance at a summer session of a university or 
a teachers' college, and doing approved regular work, $25 a year 
additional up to a maximum of four summers. All summer work 
also to count proportionally toward required college work, for 
promotion to other positions. 

b) For a year of study, on leave of absence, at a university 
or teachers' college, doing regular work and following some ap- 
proved course of study, $50 a year additional in salary, and same 
to count, in full, toward eligibility for other positions. 

c) For a year of study or travel in Europe, $100 additional. 
This to count as equivalent to a year in college in determining 
eligibility for higher positions. 

3. Leaves of absences for travel or study to be granted to 
teachers, without pay, on their application; and the same or an 
equivalent position to be guaranteed to them on their return. 

4. For faithful and intelligent service and for professional 
growth, additional increase of $50 a year may be recommended 
for any teacher, by the Superintendent, on the prior recommenda- 
tion of the principal of the school and the concurrence of a ma- 
jority of the Assistant Superintendents. All such must have been 
Class A teachers for at least the two years preceding, and such 
salary increases for service to be made not oftener than once 
in two years. 

5. Maximum salary for elementary teachers in graded work, 
$1,200. 

6. Teachers of ability who improve themselves under any 
of the provisions of 2, above, so as to comply with any of the 
requirements for admission to the service, as proposed under 
subdivision 11, page 50, may be further advanced in salary by 
promotion to positions in the intermediate schools, after such are 
established. 

II. Intermediate Schools 

(Seventh, eighth, and ninth grades.) To apply only to regu- 
larly organized intermediate schools, when established, and not 
to grade work under present conditions. 

1. Minimum beginning salary $900, and to increase auto- 
matically, after passing the probationary period, up to $1,100. 

2. Further increases, on the basis of professional merit, 
teaching skill, and additional study, on the same basis as pro- 
vided above for elementary teachers, up to a maximum of $1,300. 



64 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

3. Leaves of absence, for travel and study, also to be granted, 
as above. 

4. Teachers of ability, who improve themselves under any 
of the provisions given above for elementary teachers, so as to 
comply with the requirements for admission to the service as 
proposed under subdivision 11, page 50, may be further advanced 
by promotion to the rank of Assistant in the high schools, after 
which they may be eligible for promotion to the rank of In- 
structor. 

5. Experienced teachers from other places, entering the 
system, to be given such credit for their experience as may be 
determined. 

III. High Schools 

Three grades of teaching positions to be provided for the 
regular high schools, to be known as Assistants, Instructors, and 
Heads of Departments, and to have the following salary ranges: 

a) Assistant. — To begin at $900, and to be advanced auto- 
matically to $1,200, at which all salary increases would stop, un- 
less promoted to the rank of Instructor. Such promotion to be 
on the basis of teaching efficiency, interest, and growth; the 
recommendation of the head of the department and the princi- 
pal of the high school; and with the approval of the Superin- 
tendent of Schools. Promotion to the higher rank may also be 
made by the Superintendent, by transfer to a vacant position 
in another high school. 

b) Instructor. — May be filled by original appointment, or 
by the promotion of Assistants in the same, or other high schools. 
To begin at $1,200, and to advance automatically to $1,500. To 
retain desirable teachers, and for special merit or advanced study, 
the Superintendent, on recommendation of the principal of the 
high school concerned, may recommend a further increase to 
$1,600. 

c) Heads of Departments. — May be filled by original ap- 
pointment, or by the promotion of Instructors in the same or 
other high schools. To begin at $1,500, and to advance automat- 
ically to $1,800. To retain desirable heads of departments, and 
for special merit or advanced study, the Superintendent, on rec- 
ommendation of the principal of the high school concerned, may 
recommend further increases up to a maximum of $2,000. 

d) All teachers in high schools to be granted leaves of ab- 
sence for study, as other teachers. For a year of graduate study 
in their special field of work, in an approved American or Euro- 
pean university, all Instructors and heads of departments to be 
granted $100 increase, in addition to the maximum salary limits 
reached bv automatic increases. 



CHAP. V. SALARIES OF TEACHERS 65 

IV. Principals of Schools 

The present graded salaries, varying with the size of the 
school from $1,050 to $2,150, give splendid opportunity for an 
adjustment of the salaries of elementary-school principals ac- 
cording to their worth. Principals who cannot do good work, or 
who will not grow, should be dropped, or transferred to smaller 
schools, while principals who grow and are capable should be 
transferred to the largest schools and to the best positions. Po- 
sitions ought not to be regarded as fixed, and a condition of 
healthy rivalry should be developed among the principals. When 
intermediate schools are established, promotion to these, at sal- 
aries up to $2,500, should be open to the best of the elementary 
school principals. If any principal will take a leave of absence 
for a year, and spend it in study in a school of education in 
any of our better American universities, an additional $100 a 
year, above the present maximum, should be added to his or 
her salary. 

Advantages of Such a Merit Plan 

The above outline is suggestive of a plan which could be 
applied to the payment of teachers and principals in Portland, 
with great educational advantage. A still better plan might be 
devised. Unlike most merit plans, to which teachers usually 
object, this suggested outline places definite rewards for defi- 
nite things, and places but little dependence on the personal 
opinion of any one individual. It is to this last that teachers 
generally object. Where judgment is to be employed here it is 
the judgment of the principal and of the Superintendent. Such 
a plan contains little or nothing to which teachers or principals 
can legitimately object, unless they object to being expected to 
study and to keep thinking and growing. Even such could re- 
main, if content with the lower salaries. 

The salary limits proposed would cost the Board of School 
Directors a little more for salaries, but chiefly because salaries 
ought to be raised anyway. In the elementary school, while of- 
fering a larger maximum for the best teachers, it would cost 
practically no more than the present schedule, after it was once 
in operation, because all would not advance so high as now. In 
the intermediate school grades it would add a little to costs, but 
chiefly because a much higher grade of teaching service would be 
provided. In the high schools, while advancing costs somewhat, 
due to the higher level of salaries, and materially advancing the 
maximum for the best, it would not increase costs so much as 
might at first be thought because of the lower beginning salary 
which would eventually be paid to many of the newer teachers. 
By reference to the salaries paid in other western cities, it will 
be seen that the salaries proposed are still really low. The same 
will be true if the salaries proposed are compared with those 



66 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

paid other city employees doing a similar high grade of work. 
The merit of the suggested plan lies in that it would provide 
a much better distribution of rewards; would offer more encour- 
agement for study and personal advancement; would provide 
more opportunities for the efficient to rise; would tend better 
to retain the best teachers in the service; and would give the 
School Directors better returns in efficiency for the money spent 
than does the present salary schedule. If some such plan for 
salary payments were inaugurated and carried out, it would be 
of great service in offering incentives to the ambitious and capa- 
ble to enter the employ of the district, and to remain and advance 
in the ranks. 



PART II 

Instructional Needs 



CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 69 

Chapter VI 

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION OF PORTLAND 

It has seemed best to begin this study of the instructional 
needs of the Portland school district by first locating the city, 
among other cities of its class in the United States, and with refer- 
ence to its size, its rate of growth, the character of its popula- 
tion, the character of its public interests, its comparative wealth, 
and its costs for annual maintenance, and from such an analysis 
to deduce the instructional needs of the district. This can be 
done best by presenting a series of tables, a glance at which will 
reveal the social and economic position of the city, and from 
which something as to the present and future educational needs 
and possibilities can be deduced. 

Sources of Information 

This is made possible at this time because of the recent pub- 
lication of the results of the Thirteenth U. S. Census, for 1910, 
and the separate publication, within the past few months, of the 
Census Bureau's very comprehensive "Financial Statistics of 
Cities for 1910." In this latter the income, expenditures, and 
wealth of all cities of 30,000 or more inhabitants are compared, 
in great detail. The information is, of course, two years old 
now, and some minor changes have no doubt occurred since then 
in all of the cities. It is, however, the most recent and the most 
accurate comparative information now available, and it is prob- 
able that similar information for the year 1912 would not ma- 
terially change the relative rank and position of the different 
cities. 

Cities Selected for Comparison 

Portland had, in 1910, a population of 207,214, and there 
were then thirty-seven cities in the United States, including 
Portland, which had a population between 100,000 and 350,000 
people. These may be considered as more or less in Portland's 
class in the matter of size, wealth, costs for maintenance, and 
provision for education. The educational problems which face 
cities within these population limits are somewhat the same. The 
high position of Portland, among the cities of the United States 
within the above limits, will be shown by the tables which 
follow. 

The thirty-seven cities, with their population in 1910, and 
the rate of increase in population from 1900 to 1910, are: 



70 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Table 4. 

Size and Rate of Growth of Selected Cities 



CITY. 





Rate of 


Population, 


Increase, 


1910. 


1900-1910 


100,253 


6.5* 


102,054 


43.7* 


104,402 


183.3* 


104,839 


14.1* 


106,294 


11.9* 


110,368 


36.5* 


112,571 


28.6* 


116,577 


36.6* 


119,295 


13.8* 


124,096 


21.0* 


125,600 


19.4* 


127,628 


50.1* 


129,867 


27.3* 


131,105 


28.1* 


132,685 


245.4* 


133,605 


23.7* 


137,249 


26.6* 


145,986 


23.3* 


150,174 


124.3* 


154,839 


72.3* 


168,497 


27.8* 


181,511 


44.6* 


207,214 


129.2* 


213,381 


59.4* 


214,744 


31.7* 


218,149 


34.2* 


223,928 


9.4* 


224,326 


27.8* 


233,650 


38.1* 


237,194 


194.0* 


248,381 


51.7* 


267,779 


29.7* 


301,408 


48.7* 


319,198 


211.5* 


331,069 


18.8* 


339,075 


18.1* 


347,469 


41.2* 



1. Albany, New York 

2. Bridgeport, Connecticut . 

3. Spokane, Washington . . . 

4. Cambridge, Massachusetts 

5. Lowell, Massachusetts 

6. Nashville, Tennessee .... 

7. Grand Rapids, Michigan . 

8. Dayton, Ohio 

9. Fall River, Massachusetts 

10. Omaha, Nebraska 

11. Paterson, New Jersey 

12. Richmond, Virginia 

13. Scranton, Pennsylvania . . 

14. Memphis, Tennessee 

15. Birmingham, Alabama . . . 

16. New Haven, Connecticut . 

17. Syracuse, New York 

18. Worcester, Massachusetts 

19. Oakland, California 

20. Atlanta, Georgia 

21. Toledo, Ohio 

22. Columbus, Ohio 

23. PORTLAND, OREGON . 

24. Denver, Colorado 

25. St. Paul, Minnesota 

26. Rochester, New York 

27. Louisville, Kentucky 

28. Providence, Rhode Island 

29. Indianapolis, Indiana 

30. Seattle, Washington 

31. Kansas City, Missouri .... 

32. Jersey City, New Jersey . . 

33. Minneapolis, Minnesota . . 

34. Los Angeles, California .. . 

35. Washington, D. C 

36. New Orleans, Louisiana .. 

37. Newark, New Jersev 



Size 
The city is one of large dimensions and large future possi- 
bilities, and it has had a very remarkable growth. The city had, 
at the beginning of 1913, a land and water area of nearly fifty- 
four square miles, which is large among cities. This means as 
yet but little crowding, as this averages less than eight persons 
to the acre of land. Of the thirty-seven cities used for compari- 
son throughout this report, twenty have an area of less than 
twenty-five square miles, thirty-two have an area of less than 
sixty square miles, and but three exceed seventy-five square miles 
in size. The Willamette River divides the city into two unequal 
divisions, — the West Side, of about eleven square miles, and the 



CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 71 



East Side, of about forty square miles. (See Figure 1, page 5.) 
The water area covers a little more than two square miles. The 
city is almost certain to annex more territory, particularly to the 
Southwest, Northwest, and East, and to include a much larger area 
as the population increases. An area of one hundred and fifty 
square miles and a population of two millions of people is per- 
haps not too much to expect within the next half century. 

Population 

The city has had a remarkable growth in population, as the 
following figures will show: 

Increase in Rate of 

Census of Population decade increase 

1860 2,847 

1870 8,293 5,419 188.62 

1880 17,557 9,284 111.92 

1890 46,385 17,557 163.92 

1900 90,426 44,041 94.92 

1910 207,214 116,786 129.22 

Of the 225 cities of the United States having a population of 
25,000 or over in 1910, but fourteen had grown faster than had 
Portland during the ten years preceding; and Portland was one 
of the six cities in the United States, having 100,000 or more in- 
habitants, which doubled its population during the preceding 
decade. Of these six cities it is significant that five were Pacific 
Coast cities. They were: 

Rate of growth, 
City 1900-1910 

1. Oakland, California 124.32 

2. PORTLAND, ORE 129.2* 

3. Spokane, Washington 183.32 

4. Seattle, Washington 194.0* 

5. Los Angeles, California 211.52 

6. Birmingham, Alabama 245.42 

It is confidently claimed that Portland has at the present 
time a population of 250,000, and the peculiar location and the 
economic importance of the city are such that it can confidently 
look forward to having a population of 1,000,000 people within 
the next twenty-five to thirty years, and probably twice that 
number within the next half century. A city with such a "mani- 
fest destiny" ahead needs to plan wisely and in the large for its 

Character of the Population 
From an educational point of view the population of Port- 
land is exceptionally good among cities, and much better than 
can be expected to continue after the city has become older 
and larger. The present population, based on the census figures 
for 1910, is characterized by a high percentage of the native 
born, a foreign-born population drawn largely from the stronger 
and more intelligent national stocks, an almost entire absence of 
negroes, a marked excess in adults and males, a small number 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



of married couples, and a very small percentage of children of 
school age. This condition is well shown by the following tables 
and diagrams. 

The first table shows the composition of the population in 
the thirty-seven cities chosen for purposes of comparison. 

Table 5. 
Composition of the Population: 37 Selected Cities 



. 


Percentage of the 


whole who are 


CITY 


Native 


Native born 








born of 


with 1 or 


Foreign 


Negroes 




native 


both parents 


born 






parents 


foreign born 






1. Indianapolis, Ind.. 


64.5 


17.7 


8.5 


9.3 


2. Columbus, Ohio.... 


64.4 


19.6 


9.0 


7.0 


3. Davton, Ohio 


62.9 


21.9 


11.9 


4.2 


4. Kansas City, Mo.. . . 


61.9 


18.4 


10.2 


9.5 


5. Atlanta, Ga 


59.4 


4.2 


2.8 


33.5 


6. Nashville, Tenn.... 


57.7 


6.5 


2.7 


33.1 


7. Richmond, Va 


54.2 


6.0 


19.0 


36.6 


8. Los Angeles, Cal.. . 


53.2 


26.1 


20.3 


2.4 


9. Spokane, Wash.... 


52.3 


26.1 


20.3 


0.7 


10. Louisville, Ky 


50.7 


23.4 


7.8 


18.1 


11. Washington, D. C. 


50.4 


13.6 


7.4 


28.5 


12. PORTLAND, OR.. 


50.3 


24.6 


21.1 


0.5* 


13. Denver, Colo 


50.1 


28.7 


18.2 


2.5 


14. Birmingham, Ala... 


50.0 


6.3 


4.3 


39.4 


15. Memphis, Tenn. . . 


45.8 


9.3 


4.9 


40.0 


16. Toledo, Ohio 


44.6 


35.2 


19.0 


1.1 


17. Seattle, Wash. 


44.6 


25.8 


25.6 


1.0 


18. Albany, N. Y 


44.6 


36.4 


18.1 


1.0 


19. New Orleans, La. . . 


43.5 


21.9 


8.2 


26.3 


20. Syracuse, N. Y 


42.6 


34.2 


22.4 


0.8 


21. Omaha, Neb 


42.6 


31.9 


21.8 


3.6 


22. Oakland, Cal. 


36.8 


33.3 


24.5 


2.0 


23. Grand Rapids, Mich, 


36.2 


38.0 


25.2 


0.6 


24. Rochester, N. Y.. . . 


34.2 


38.4 


27.0 


0.4 


25. Minneapolis, Minn.. 


31.9 


38.7 


28.5 


0.9 




29.8 


42.7 


27.0 


0.4 


27. St. Paul, Minn 


28.7 


43.5 


26.3 


1.5 


28. Worcester, Mass.... 


28.4 


37.5 


33.2 


0.9 


29. New Haven, Conn.. 


28.2 


37.0 


32.0 


2.7 


30. Jersev City, N. J.. . 


28.0 


40.7 


29.0 


2.2 


31. Newark, N. J 


27.3 


38.1 


31.8 


2.7 


32. Providence, R. I. . . . 


26.7 


36.7 


34.0 


2.4 


33. Bridgeport, Conn... 


26.6 


36.6 


35.5 


1.3 


34. Cambridge, Mass.. . 


24.4 


38.0 


33.0 


4.5 


35. Patterson, N. J, 


22.6 


40.0 


36.1 


1.2 


36. Lowell, Mass 


19.5 


39.5 


40.9 


0.1 


37. Fall River, Mass. . . 


13.3 


43.7 


42.6 


0.3 



Plus 3.5# of Indians, Chinese, and Japanese, — mostly Chinese. 



CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 73 

The high percentage of the native-born and the small per- 
centage of colored people are noticeable features of Portland's 
population. But six northern or western cities have a higher 
percentage of native born. 

The character of Portland's population is still better shown 
by the figure inserted here, 



NATIVE-BORN, 

F 
K A T I V B 

P A H E N T S. 
50.3 1> 



NATIVE- 
BORN, BUT 
ONE, OR BOTH, 
BARENTS 
TO BEI GN-BO HN. 



24.6 $ 



R E I G N'i Gern >ar,8 an<1 
BORN #"^i^an s > A 

fcl.l* Afc» **•»* 



^'a,, 
.*** 



•# 






Fig. 4. The Elements of Portland's Population 

which gives the percentages for each class and the distribution 
by nationalities of the foreign-born element. The large Teutonic 
element among the foreign-born is a noticeable feature, and it is 
even larger among the native-born of foreign parentage. This 
may be expected to change, after the opening of the Panama 
Canal, and with the coming to the city of large numbers of immi- 
grants from the south and east of Europe. 

That much of this foreign element, small as it is, is without 
children of school age, is further shown by an analysis of the 



74 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



nationality statistics for the children enrolled in the schools of 
the district. This analysis shows a remarkably small foreign- 
born element in the schools. The enrollment for 1912-13 showed 
the following percentages: 

Born in Portland 28.7* 

Born elsewhere in Oregon 15.0* 

Born in other American states 48.1* 

Total native born 91.8* 

Born in British North America 1.5* 

Born in N. W. Europe 2,3* 

Born in Bussia 2.3* 

Born in Italy 0.6* 

Born in all other countries 1.5* 

Total foreign born 6.7* 

100.0* 
Males 

The preponderance of males and of unmarried people are 
also marked characteristics of the population of Portland. This 
is shown by the comparisons made in Tables 6 and 7. 



Table 6. 
Percentage of Males in the Total Population 



City. 



Per cent of the total population who are 



1. Seattle, Wash 

2. PORTLAND, ORE. 

3. Spokane, Wash. . . . 

4. Omaha, Neb 

5. Minneapolis, Minn. . 

6. St. Paul, Minn 

7. Oakland, Cal 

8. Kansas City, Mo. . . . 

9. Bridgeport, Conn. . 

10. Jersey City, N. J 

11. Los Angeles, Cal... 

12. Birmingham, Ala. . . 

13. Dayton, Ohio 

14. Columbus, Ohio . . . 

15. Denver, Colo 

16. Toledo, Ohio 

17. Worcester, Mass. .. 

18. Syracuse, N. Y 

19. Memphis, Tenn. . . . 

20. Scranton, Pa 

21. New Haven, Conn. . 

22. Newark, N. J 

23. Paterson, N. J 

24. Bochester, N. Y. 

25. Indianapolis, Ind. . 



Males. 



Males over 21 years old. 




42.9 
42.9 
38.6 
34.8 
34.9 
33.6 
35.9 
35.2 
32.3 
30.2 
36.0 
30.7 
32.8 
33.5 
33.7 
31.3 
31.2 
32.6 
33.8 
28.5 
30.3 
27.9 
29.4 
31.9 
32.8 



CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 



Table 6 — Continued 
Percentage of Males in the Total Population 





City. 


Per cent c 


»f the total population who are 




Males. 


Males over 21 years old. 


26. 


Providence, R. I. ... 


49.1 




30.8 


27. 


Grand Rapids, Mich- 


48.5 




30.5 


28. 


Louisville, Ky 


48.5 




30.2 


29. 


Lowell, Mass 


48.5 




29.4 


30. 




48.3 




26.5 


31. 


New Orleans, La 


48.2 




28.6 


32. 


Atlanta, Ga 


48.1 




28.7 


33. 


Albany, N. Y 


48.1 




31.9 


34. 


Cambridge, Mass. . . . 


47.9 




28.9 


35. 


Washington, D. C 


47.7 




31.3 


36. 


Richmond, Va 


47.7 




29.2 


37. 


Nashville, Tenn 


47.3 




27.9 


38. 


All cities in the U. S. 


50.8 




31.3 



The unusually high percentage of males in the voting popu- 
lation in Portland is of significance. 

Table 7. 
Percentage of Males Fifteen Years Old or Over Who Are Married 



1. Grand Rapids, Mich 

2. Dayton, Ohio 

3. Indianapolis, Ind 

4. Toledo, Ohio 

5. Atlanta, Ga 

6. Newark, N. J 

7. Fall River, Mass 

8. Rirmingham, Ala 

9. Nashville, Tenn 

10. Paterson, N. J 

11. Syracuse, N. Y 

12. Columbus, Ohio 

13. New Haven, Conn 

14. Denver, Colo 

15. Rridgeport, Conn 

16. Los Angeles, Cal 

17. Kansas City, Mo 

18. Scranton, Pa 

19. Rochester, N. Y 

20. Providence, R. I 

21. Washington, D. C 

22. Cambridge, Mass 

23. Oakland, Cal 

24. Jersey City, N. J 

25. Worcester, Mass 

26. Louisville, Ky 

27. Lowell, Mass! 

28. Richmond, Va 

29. Memphis. Tenn 

30. Albany, N. Y 

31. New Orleans, La 

32. Spokane, Wash 

33. Omaha, Neb 

34. Minneapolis, Minn 

35. St. Paul, Minn 

36. PORTLAND, ORE 

37. Seattle, Wash 

38. United States as a whole 



59.7 
59.2 
58.8 
58.5 
57.4 
57.4 
56.7 
56.6 
56.1 
56.0 
55.9 
55.4 
55.4 
55.1 
55.0 
55.0 
54.7 
54.5 
54.5 
53.9 
53.8 
53.5 
53.4 
53.2 
53.0 
52.6 
52.4 
52.1 
51.4 
51.7 
51.5 
50.6 
49.5 
47.9 
45.7 
42.6 
42.5 
55.8 



76 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



The two tables preceding reveal a city made up of much 
more than the usual number of men without families. In the 
figure which follows the age distribution of Portland's popula- 
tion is compared with \\\e age distribution for the United States 
as a whole, and this throws further light on the composition of 
Portland's population. 



Un i t ed States 



Und< r 5 

9.9 tmm, 



Portland 



5 to 
17.4 ToVMZMMZ. 



20.1 % 



y/////////////WMW//A 



35.2#v 



15 tn 
25 U 



14 
24 
44 



6.8 <f> 

12.0 <f> 
20.2 $ 



45 tq| 

15.2 twrnssm 



65 and over 
4.0 $> WkW 3-2 $ 



Al.lt 



64 



16.7 t 



Fig. 5. Age Distribution of the Population 



The above figure reveals the great excess of population of 
the aggressive adult years between 25 and 45, and also the small 
percentage of children of school age in Portland. In the popu- 
lation between 25 and 45 the preceding table shows that there 
must be a marked preponderance of men, many of whom have 
no families. Such a condition is characteristic of a new and a 
rapidly growing community, and will inevitably change as the 
city grows older and its population become more settled. 

The small number of children of school age in Portland, 
compared with the other cities studied, is another of the note- 
worthy characteristics of the city's population. This is well 
shown bv Table 8. 



CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 



77 



Table 8 
Percentage of Children in the Population 





Percentage 


Percentage 


City. 


to 14 yrs. of age. 


Under 15 yrs. of age. 


1. Fall River, Mass. . . 


18.2 


32.3 


2. Scranton, Pa 


18.1 


32.0 


3. Jersey Citv, N. J 


17.5 


30.0 


4. Newark, N. J 


10.0 


29.0 


5. New Orleans, La. . . . 


17.0 


28.4 


6. Birmingham, Ala. . . 


10.2 


29.0 




10.1 


29.1 


8. New Haven, Conn... 


10.1 


28.4 


9. Nashville, Tenn. . . . 


10.0 


27.0 


10. Cambridge, Mass. . . . 


15.7 


27.8 


11. Atlanta, Ga 


15.0 


27.5 


12. Toledo, Ohio 


15.4 


20.0 


13. Richmond, Va 


15.3 


20.1 


14. Worcester, Mass. . . . 


15.3 


27.0 


15. Grand Rapids, Mich. 


15.2 


27.0 


10. Lowell, Mass 


15.1 


20.8 


17. Bridgeport, Conn. ... 


15.0 


27.2 


18. Louisville, Kv 


14.0 


25.1 


19. Providence, R. I.... 


14.3 


20.2 


20. St. Paul, Minn 


14.1 


24.9 




14.0 


24.3 


22. Rochester, N. Y. 


13.9 


24.2 


23. Denver, Colo 


13.7 


23.1 


24. Indianapolis, Ind.... 


13.7 


23.3 


25. Dayton, Ohio 


13.7 


24.5 


20. Omaha, Neb 


13.0 


23.0 


27. Washington, D. C. . 


13.5 


23.2 


28. Minneapolis, Minn. . 


13.3 


23.4 


29. Memphis, Tenn 


13.3 


23.1 


30. Albany, N. Y 


13.3 


22.5 


31. Columbus, Ohio .... 


13.2 


22 7 




13.0 


23.2 


33. Oakland, Cal 


12.0 


22.5 


34. Kansas City, Mo 


12.3 


21.2 


35. Los Angeles, Cal 


11.6 


20.1 


30. Seattle, Wash 


11.1 


19.7 


37. PORTLAND, ORE. 


10.7 


18.8 




13.2 


27.3 



This low percentage of children of the elementary school 
age in the total population has made the schools of Portland 
very easy to maintain. If the percentage for Portland were as 
high as the average for all cities in the United States (13.2) it 
would mean an increase of 0,000 elementary school children and 
about 150 additional teachers and class rooms (10 to 12 build- 
ings) to provide for the present population only. If Portland 
had such percentages of school children as are found in such 
cities as Fall River, Jersey City, or Newark, cities where the 
foreign-born population is large, from 450 to 500 additional 
teachers and class rooms (25 to 30 buildings) would be required 
to meet the needs of a citv of the present size. The very small 



78 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



number of children in the city has enabled, and for some time 
to come should enable, the city to continue to provide educa- 
tional advantages for its children much better than the average 
city can do. 

Business Interests 

The city is essentially a residence and a commercial city. 
Though ranking 28th in size in 1910, it stood 55th in the value 
of its manufactured products. It ranks with other Western resi- 
dence and commercial cities in the matter of the percentage of 
its people engaged in the manufacturing industries, and not with 
the manufacturing cities of the East, as is shown by the follow- 
ing table: 

Table 9 

Percentage of the Total Population Engaged in Manufacture 



City. 


Per cent. 


City. 


Per cent. 


Spokane, Wash 

Seattle, Wash 

Oakland, Cal 

Los Angeles, Cal. . . 

Denver, Colo 

PORTLAND, ORE.. 


3.8 
4.2 
4.6 
5.4 
5.6 
5.9 


Rochester, N. Y 

Albanv, N. Y 

Providence, R. I. . . . 

Lowell, Mass 

Fall River, Mass 


18.0 
18.5 
18.6 
20.7 
30.6 
31.1 



The lumber industry is the only manufacturing industry in 
Portland which requires any large number of persons. This em- 
ployed, in 1910, 26.3? of those engaged in the manufacturing in- 
dustries of the city, and the value of its output was 22? of all 
of Portland's manufactures, and 33.5? of the lumber manufac- 
tures for the whole state. The next largest industry was print- 
ing and publishing, which employed 11.2* of those engaged in 
manufacturing. Then, in order, foundry and machine shops (6.3?) ; 
bakeries (4.5?) ; clothing industries (3.8?) ; furniture manufac- 
tures (3.6?); copper, tin, and sheet iron products (3?); leather 
goods (2.6?); and confectionery (2.4?). The remainder of Port- 
land's workers (36.3?) were scattered among a large number of 
small industries. In all lines but 14,891 persons were employed. 
These figures reveal that Portland has as yet no large manufac- 
turing industries. 

It is buying, selling, and transshipping which forms the great 
business interest of Portland. The jobbing trade is large, im- 
portant, and rapidly increasing. Over an area calculated at 136,- 
768 square miles in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, an area 
three times as large as the state of New York, it is estimated that 
Portland merchants sell 80? of all the goods bought. Over an- 
other area calculated at 103,513 square miles in six western 
states, an area twice as large as Pennsylvania and New Jersey 
combined, and which is ranked as competitive territory, it is 



CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 



79 



estimated that Portland merchants sell from 40^ to 80# of the 
goods sold. This means that an area four times as large as the 
six New England states combined, and larger than the German 
Empire, and which is rapidly increasing in population, is con- 
tributory to Portland in its buying and selling. This is reflected 
in the bank clearings of Portland, which have increased from 
$50,000,000 in 1900, and $300,000,000 in 1906, to $600,000,000 
in 1912. 

The agricultural industries which surround Portland are 
much more important than its manufactures. Not only is Port- 
land the natural transshipping and exchange center for a large 
area in three states, but it is also located in the very center of 
the agricultural industry of the state of Oregon. In the six coun- 




ties immediately surrounding the city, as shown by the above 
map, and which comprise but 7.5£ of the total area of the state, 
there resides one-third of the rural population of the whole 
state, one-third of the total number of farms is located, and one- 
third of the agricultural products of the state is raised. 

The great interests of the city are home interests, profes- 
sional interests, business interests, and agricultural interests, 
though manufacturing will doubtless increase somewhat with 
time. Beautifully located as the city is, with its hills, river, 
and plain; located virtually at the junction of two great rivers, 
each open to the navigation of large ocean-going ships; with 
fresh-water navigation in three rtirectW.s * Vm " lon « distances. 



80 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



and soon to open to the Idaho line; and with agricultural and 
timber interests of large and increasing proportions in all direc- 
tions and for long distances, Portland is certain to continue to 
be a desirable residence city, and to become a commercial and 
jobbing center of very large future importance. These facts 
necessarily should modify and color the kind of education pro- 
vided by the city for its children. 

Wealth 
The city is one of much wealth, being one of the richest 
cities, per capita of population, in the United States, and also 
has very low taxes, as is shown by the two tables which follow. 

Table 10 
Assessed and Real Wealth Per Capita of the Population 



1 


Assessed 


Basis of 


Real per 


City. 


wealth, 


assess- 


capita 


1 


per capita. 


ment, $>. 


wealth. 


1. Lowell, Mass 


$ 753.52 


100 


$ 753.52 


2. Paterson, N. J 


758.31 


100 


758.31 


3. Fall River, Mass 


776.45 


100 


776.45 


4. Toledo, Ohio 


492.60 
830.19 


60 
100 


821.00 


5. Bridgeport, Conn 


830.19 


6. Dayton, Ohio 


537.25 


60 


895.41 


7. Jersev City, N. J 


902.09 


100 


902.09 




681.06 


75 


908.08 


9. Nashville, Tenn 


687.69 


75 


916.93 


10. Syracuse, N. Y 


829.50 


89 


920.74 


11. Scranton, Pa 


558.33 


80 


922.91 


12. Grand Rapids, Mich. . . 


742.01 


80 


927.51 


13. Albany, N. Y 


932.59 


100 


932.59 


14. Columbus, Ohio 


559.68 


60 


932.80 


15. New Haven, Conn. . . . 


949.26 


100 


949.26 


16. Newark, N. J 


955.68 


100 


955.68 


17. Worcester, Mass 


971.99 


100 


971.99 


18. Birmingham, Ala 


496.02 


50 


992.04 


19. Rochester, N. Y 


815.33 


80 


1019.16 


20. Cambridge, Mass 


1020.21 


100 


1020.21 


21. Louisville, Ky 


776.06 


70 


1108.65 


22. Providence, R. I 


1155.22 


100 


1155.22 


23. Kansas Citv, Mo 


602.43 


50 


1204.86 


24. St. Paul, Minn 


622.18 


50 


1244.36 


25. Richmond, Va 


940.32 


75 


1253.76 


26. Denver, Colo 


634.86 


50 


1269.72 




709.22 


55 


1289.51 


28. Atlanta, Ga 


778.10 
794.84 


60 
60 


1296.83 


29. Indianapolis, Ind 


1324.73 


30. Washington, D. C 


937.41 


70 


1329.16 


31. Oakland, Cal 


713.55 


50 


1427.10 


32. Omaha, Neb 


234.95 
707.16 


15 
45 


1566.33 


33. Minneapolis, Minn. . . . 


1571.46 


34. Seattle. Wash 


865.38 


45 


1923.06 


35, PORTLAND, ORE. . . 


1115.57 


57 


1957.14 


36. Spokane, Wash 


820.09 


41 


2000.00 


37. Los Angeles, Cal 


911.36 


45 


2025.24 


38. Average of all cities... 


953.98 











CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 



81 



Table 11 

Rate of Tax, in Mills, for Maintenance of All City Departments, 
Including the School Department 



City. 



1. Birmingham, Ala. . . 

2. PORTLAND, ORE. 

3. Spokane, Wash 

4. Atlanta, Ga 

5. Oakland, Cal 

6. Indianapolis, Ind. . . 

7. Omaha, Neb 

8. Los Angeles, Cal. . . . 

9. Memphis. Tenn. . . . 

10. Seattle, Wash 

11. Washington, D. C. . . 

12. Richmond, Va 

13. St. Paul, Minn 

14. Nashville, Tenn. . . . 

15. Kansas City, Mo 

16. Grand Rapids, Mich 

17. Paterson, N. J 

18. Scranton, Pa 

19. Minneapolis, Minn. . 

20. Jersey City, N J.. . . 

21. Louisville, Kv 

22. Worcester. Mass. . . . 

23. Dayton, Ohio 

24. Providence, R. I. 

25. Columbus, Ohio 

26. Albany, N. Y 

27. Bridgeport, Conn. . 

28. Fall River, Mass. . . . 

29. New Haven. Conn. . . 

30. Rochester. N. Y 

31. Denver, Colo 

32. Toledo, Ohio 

33. Newark, N. J 

34. Lowell, Mass 

35. New Orleans, La... 

36. Syracuse, N. Y 

37. Cambridge, Mass. .. 

38. Average of all cities 



Nominal rate 


Basis of 


Real rate of 


of taxation, 


assessment, 


taxation, 


mills. 


per cent. 


mills. 


10.00 


50 


5.00 


11.78 


57 


6.71 


17.51 


41 


7.18 


12.50 


60 


7.50 


15.34 


50 


7.69 


15.40 


60 


9.24 


62.16 


15 


9.32 


21.63 


45 


9.42 


17.50 


55 


9.71 


22.13 


45 


9.96 


15.00 


70 


10.28 


14.00 


75 


10.50 


21.99 


50 


10.68 


14.74 


75 


11.06 


22.60 


50 


11.30 


14.14 


80 


11.31 


11.33 


100 


11.33 


14.18 


80 i 


11.34 


25.95 


45 


11.50 


12.60 


100 


12.60 


18.50 


70 


12.95 


14.01 


100 


14.01 


23.87 


60 


14.32 


14.70 


100 


14.70 


25.15 


60 


15.09 


15.39 


100 


15.39 


15.71 


100 


15.71 


15.84 


100 


15.84 


16.00 


100 


16.00 


20.07 


80 


16.06 


33.26 


50 


16.63 


27.83 


60 


16.70 


16.72 


100 


16.72 


17.02 


100 


17.02 


23.00 


75 


17.25 


19.87 


89 


17.58 


18.61 


100 


18.61 


18.89 







Cost for City Maintenance 

The annual per capita of the total population cost for main- 
taining the city government, including schools, but excluding 
public-service undertakings (water, wharves, etc.) which are 
business undertakings and partly or wholly self-supporting, is 
shown in the next table for each of the thirty-seven cities 
studied. From this table the low per capita cost of Portland's 
government is seen. 



82 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Table 12 
Per Capita Cost for City Maintenance 



Cost per 

year per 

City. capita. 

1. Birmingham, Ala $ 7.10 

2. Nashville, Term 9.14 

3. Scranton, Pa 9.34 

4. Richmond, Va 9.99 

5. Paterson, N. J 10.52 

6. Columbus, Ohio 10.78 

7. Atlanta, Ga 10.93 

8. PORTLAND, ORE 11.11 

9. Grand Rapids, Mich 11.35 

10. Toledo, Ohio 11.66 

11. Jersey City, N. J 11.77 

12. Bridgeport, Conn 11.79 

13. Dayton, Ohio 11.99 

14. Oakland, Cal 12.22 

15. Memphis, Tenn 12.24 

16. New Orleans, La 12.42 

17. Indianapolis, Ind 12.48 

18. Fall River, Mass 12.78 

19. Lowell, Mass 12.81 

20. Louisville. Ky 13.00 

21. St. Paul, Minn 13.03 

22. Albanv, N. Y 13.38 

23. Spokane, Wash 14.21 

24. New Haven, Conn 14.35 

25. Omaha, Neb 14.36 

26. Kansas City, Mo 14.40 

27. Providence, R. 1 14.81 

28. Syracuse. N. Y 15.03 

29. Los Angeles, Cal 15.13 

30. Seattle. Wash 15.35 

31. Cambridge, Mass 15.41 

32. Minneapolis, Minn 15.68 

33. Worcester, Mass 16.00 

34. Rochester. N. Y 16.38 

35. Newark, N. J 19.03 

36. Denver, Colo 19.21 

37. Washington, D. C 24.70 



A further analysis of the different items of expense for each 
of the thirty-seven cities studied shows that Portland maintains 
nearly all branches of its civic activity much cheaper than do 
most other cities of its size. If the seven Southern cities were 
excluded from consideration, Portland would stand at the bot- 
tom of the list for most items of city expense. This may be 
seen from the following table : 



CHAP. VI. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION 



83 



Table 13 
Rank of Portland in Items of City Expenditure 



Items. 



Per capit 


a cost for 


Rank of 
Portland 

in amt. 

spent. 


Portland. 


Average of 
37 cities. 


$ 0.84 

1.25 

1.69 

.13 

.10 


$ 1.30 

1.54 

1.64 

.19 

.29 


30th 

26th 

20th 

22d 

35th 


.86 


1.10 


25th 


1.25 


1.70 


27th 


.02 
4.29 


.74 
4.23 


36th 
19th 


.15 
.37 


.22 
.44 


27th 
19th 


.16 


.14 


9th 


$11.11 

2.89 


$13.39 
2.54 


30th 
12th 


$14.00 


$15.93 


25th 



1. General expenses of the city 

government 

2. Police department 

3. Fire department 

4. Inspection service 

5. Health conservation 

6. Street cleaning and sanita- 

tion 

7. Care and lighting of streets 

and bridges 

8. Charities, hospitals, and 

corrections 

9. Education 

10. Libraries, art galleries, and 

museums 

11. Parks, playgrounds 

12. Damage settlements, and 

miscellaneous expenses.. 
Total per capita cost. . . . 

13. Interest paid on debt 

Total per capita rate. . . . 



This table shows the very low cost of maintenance for the 
city government of Portland, including the schools of the dis- 
trict. Only for fire protection (3), for schools (9), for damages 
for personal injuries (12), and for interest on its bonded debt 
(13) does Portland reach the average of the thirty-seven cities 
selected as being of its class in size and costs, while in nearly 
all other items Portland is much below the average of the thirty- 
seven. 

The rank of Portland in amounts spent, given in the last 
column, is a better index of its position than the expense per 
item. As this list of thirty-seven cities contains seven Southern 
cities, where all costs for maintenance are quite low, the average 
costs for the thirty-seven are considerably lower than would 
have been the case if only Northern cities had been considered. 
Portland's low cost for police (2) is an indication of the orderli- 
ness of the city, and this, together with the high per capita 
wealth (Table 10) and the very low cost for health service (5) 
and for charities (8), give further indication of the good charac- 
ter of the city's population. 

The amount spent for education (9), while slightly above 
the average for the thirty-seven cities, must not be taken too 



84 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



favorably, as the list contains a number of Eastern and Southern 
cities where the costs for maintenance and the wages paid 
teachers are both very low. As it is, the city stands nineteenth 



and 



INTEREST 



20.7/ 



9- o 



$1*, 



*Vf« 



3>ep* T 



t»« 



nt 



-ia 



,o/ 



EDUCATION 



30. r 



/* 



?•* 



c?< 



'«*. 



V 






Fig. 7. How Portland Spends Its Dollar 



from the top. If only the nine cities west of the Mississippi 
River were considered, cities where expenses for maintenance 
and for salaries are more nearly comparable, the average per 
capita cost for schools would become $4.71 instead of .$4.23, 
or 43 cents larger than Portland's. 



CHAP. VII. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SUCH A CITY 85 

Chapter VII 

THE EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SUCH A CITY. 
General Character of the City 

We find, then, as a result of the comparisons made in the 
preceding chapter, that we have to consider the needs of a rapidly 
growing western city of the best class. It is also one destined 
to grow rapidly in the future in both area and population, and 
to occupy an important place in the social, political, commercial, 
and agricultural life of the northwestern part of the United 
States. In the state of Oregon it will, in all probability, con- 
tinue for all time to be not only the metropolis, but the com- 
manding influence as well. 

In population the city is, as yet, essentially an American 
city, with but a small foreign-born population, and this drawn 
largely from nations of Teutonic stock. The number of Orientals 
of school age is small, and the number of negroes is almost neg- 
ligible. The city has a large surplus of men, particularly of the 
productive and creative years of early manhood; a small num- 
ber of married couples; and a very small percentage of children 
of school age. These facts, as was pointed out in the preced- 
ing chapter, give the city many educational advantages. 

The city itself is essentially a residence and a commercial 
city. While there is some manufacturing, the large city inter- 
ests are home and business interests, — retailing, wholesaling, the 
transshipment of freight, and supplying both the needs and the 
outlet for the rich agricultural and timber region surrounding 
the city for some distance in all directions. It is these elements 
which should color its educational system. 

The city, too, is one of the wealthiest large cities in the 
United States, and it is conducted on a very low rate of taxa- 
tion and a very low per capita expenditure. In almost every 
item of city expenditure the rank of Portland is low. While 
this is commendable, there is no reason why Portland should 
hesitate to materially increase its expenditures for its educa- 
tional system, or for other branches of helpful municipal service. 
In such a city, composed of an excellent class of people, grow- 
ing rapidly, rich, and with a great future before it, the school 
system provided should be one of the best in the United States. 
It should also be one which, in addition to providing the gen- 
eral fundamentals of knowledge and the ordinary types of in- 
struction, provides also in a broad and generous way for its citi- 
zens, public life, and commercial needs of tomorrow. This in- 
volves the provision of elementary and secondary educational 
opportunities, of course, and something more. 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Changes in Our Conception of Education 

Schools arose, with us, as democratic institutions, and to 
serve democratic ends, and quite early in our educational his- 
tory education came to be conceived of as a right on the part 
of the citizen, and as a political necessity on the part of the 
state. The early conception of the school was that of a place 
where the fundamentals of knowledge could be imparted, and 
the pupil trained for participation in our political life. Read- 
ing, writing, arithmetic, language, geography, and the history of 
our country constituted the substance of the course of instruction, 
and to convey the accumulated knowledge of the past to the next 
generation was almost the only function of the school. This 
conception, once established, has persisted in many places up 
to very recently. 

Within recent years, and particularly since about 1900, en- 
tirely new conceptions of the place and province of public edu- 
cation in a democratic society have come to the front, and are 
rapidly being accepted by our American people. The idea that 
the school exists to transmit to the next generation the accumu- 
lated knowledge of the past has given way to the newer concep- 
tion that the school exists to prepare the child of today for 
intelligent participation in that society, — social, political, and 
economic, — of which he or she will form a part. 

Significance of the Change 

This change in conception is of far-reaching significance, 
and involves radical reconstructions in the work of public edu- 
cation. What is desired today is not so much accumulated knowl- 
edge, for such is not power, as we used to think, unless it is 
capable of application to the work of life, but knowledge which 
fits the child for his place in that society of which he will prob- 
ably form a part. This has not only involved the addition of 
entirely new subjects of study, but also of entirely new classes 
of schools. It has also shifted the point of emphasis from sub- 
ject matter to the child himself. A rich, fruitful childlife is 
seen to be more important than information. 

With the increased participation of our people in the func- 
tions of government, as evidenced by the adoption of the initia- 
tive, the referendum, the recall, and the extension of the 
suffrage to women, the need of better education for the masses 
of our people has been seen to be necessary. With the great 
increase in scientific knowledge, and the application of the dis- 
coveries of science to all phases of human life, the need of in- 
struction in science for the masses of our people has been seen. 
With the growing importance of commerce and industry, care- 
ful training for the larger commercial activities of a communitv 



CHAP. VII. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SUCH A CITY 87 

has become important. With the recent great increase in com- 
plexity of our industrial and social life, the need of education 
to fit the worker better for his or her vocation and for proper 
living has rapidly become apparent. The home, too, has been 
seen to need direction and guidance, and the home-keeping arts 
have been introduced. 

In proportion, too, as our political, industrial, commercial, 
and social life has become broader and more complex, a longer 
period of educational guidance, and intelligent choice instead 
of haphazard drifting, have alike become necessary to prepare 
the individual for intelligent and successful participation in it. 
Our schools, slowly at first, are finally grasping the vast sig- 
nificance of their social, political, and commercial connections, 
relations, and obligations, and are now rapidly coming to realize 
that their worth as institutions of democracy depends, not so 
much on the imparting of mere information, as upon their ef- 
ficiency as institutions for the improvement of society. 

These New Conceptions Applied 

Applying these principles to the local situation, we should 
expect to find, in a city of the size and importance of the city 
of Portland, a school system thoroughly conscious of these mod- 
ern ends and aims, and consciously working to improve not 
only the educational, but also the social, political, commercial, 
and physical welfare of the community. 

The elementary school system, by which we mean now all 
instruction below the high school, where the great masses of 
the people are trained, should be especially rich in its offering, 
providing not only instruction and personal guidance, but in- 
struction and personal guidance for many different classes of 
children, and meeting the social, physical, and educational needs 
of many different types of youth. A system of kindergartens, 
for the instruction of children under six, might well precede 
the elementary school course, particularly in the poorer and 
more foreign quarters of the city. The elementary school train- 
ing, in its earlier years, should carry the kindergarten spirit 
over into it, and be rich in activity and happy expression. In 
its later years it should differentiate somewhat to meet different 
needs, and certain divisions of it should be given a strong voca- 
tional turn. The secondary instruction should involve the best 
quality of purely cultural, domestic, scientific, technical, com- 
mercial, physical, and vocational education, and carefully ad- 
justed to individual and community needs. 

A city of the size and importance of Portland should also 
provide good extension education, for adults and for those be- 
yond the compulsory school age. There were in the city, in 
1910, 1,187 illiterate males of voting age, and 2,145 of ten years 



88 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



age and over who could not read and write. For these some 
instruction should be provided, suitable to their needs. Far 
more important than these, though, are the thousands of men 
and women who are not illiterate, as the tests are made, but 
who still have a need and a thirst for information and instruc- 
tion. Summer schools, of different types, should also be main- 
tained, and good and readily accessible facilities provided for 
organized and directed play. 

To be still more specific, let us examine each of these di- 
visions more in detail. 

1. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

The elementary school system of such a city should of course 
give instruction in the old fundamental subjects of the elemen- 
tary school curriculum, viz., reading, writing, language, arith- 
metic, geography and history. The first four of these are tools, 
pure and simple, and should be taught well, but as economically 
of time and energy as is possible, and should lead as soon as 
possible to applied work. Perhaps few tests serve so well to 
distinguish a school system possessed of a modern spirit and a 
proper conception of its functions, from a school system of the 
old traditional type, as does the way in which these tool sub- 
jects are taught in the schools. In the former these subjects 
are frankly regarded as tools, to be taught of course, but always 
with a view to their use in learning or doing something else; 
in the latter they are taught as ends in themselves, and with a 
minuteness and an attempted thoroughness which is painful to 
behold. Years of a child's life are often spent in learning cer- 
tain supposed uses of a tool, for which there is no use outside 
of the schoolroom itself. This is particularly true of arithmetic 
and grammar. Pupils are often drilled for years on problems 
of a type no man in practical life ever solves, and grammatical 
drill is given, often for years, which can be of no use to anyone 
except a school teacher. 

Tool Subjects 

We should expect, then, in a city of the size and type of 
Portland, to find a school system in which the fundamental ele- 
mentary school tools— reading, writing, spelling, English usage, 
and the fundamentals of arithmetic — were taught well, but taught 
always with a view to their use as tools. We should also expect 
to find a corps of supervisors of instruction — superintendents 
and principals — carefully protecting the children and guiding 
the teachers away from perhaps the most common mistake of 
school teachers, — that of regarding these subjects as ends in 
themselves. 



CHAP. VII. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SUCH A CITY 89 



Content Subjects 

The reading should be especially rich in material read, and 
large in quantity, with a view to giving the child ideas and en- 
thusiasms, as well as the ability to pronounce. In a city so won- 
derfully located as Portland, a city where almost every geograph- 
ical feature and type is before the eyes of teacher and children, 
and in a wonderfully fine form, we should also expect to find 
the instruction in geography rich in its content, closely correlated 
with the nature study work, and among the best taught of all 
the elementary school subjects. The instruction in history we 
should expect to find closely correlated with reading and litera- 
ture in the early grades, and rich in story and biography, but 
gradually separating itself as a study, so that by the fifth or 
sixth grade an elementary history text might be in the hands 
of the pupils. Good instruction in drawing and music should 
also be provided. 

Science 

In a western city such as Portland, one whose whole future 
promises to be colored by the inventions and discoveries of sci- 
ence and by agriculture, we should also expect to find a course 
of study rich in instruction in the elements of many sciences. 
Such work should be found in every grade of the elementary 
school, from the first to the last, and in the upper grades it 
ought to culminate in rather specific instruction in agriculture 
and in general science. School gardening should be very promi- 
nent in the instruction of a school system located, as in Port- 
land, in the very heart of one of the richest agricultural regions 
of the United States. Good instruction in domestic science and 
homework for girls, and in manual training for boys, should also 
be prominent features of the work of the upper grades of a 
course of study for such a city. 

Individual Differences 

The school system of such a city, too, should recognize the 
great differences which exist among children, and particularly 
the great differentiations in aptitudes which begin to be marked 
after about twelve or thirteen years of age. To best meet such 
needs a series of intermediate schools might be provided with 
advantage. For a city such as Portland, with its large residen- 
tial class of means, its large business and working middle class, 
its home-building foreign population of good stock, and its poor 
and poorly-housed element, small now but certain to increase 
rapidly, differentiations in instruction for the upper years of 
the elementary school ought to be provided. For some the op- 



90 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

portunity to take up a foreign language and other mathematics 
than arithmetic ought to be provided. For others what is known 
as pre-vocational training, the nature of which is further ex- 
plained in Chapters IX and X, should be given. Manual train- 
ing and the home-keeping arts should be emphasized for others. 
Music, drawing, constructive art-work, and dramatic expression 
should also be included. 

Other Features 

In such a city, too, one ought to expect to find smaller classes 
to the teacher than in eastern cities of larger school population 
and much smaller per capita wealth. This, in turn, should en- 
able the schools to provide differentiations based on capacity 
and needs, and an excellent quality of instruction. In such a 
city, too, one should find ungraded rooms and special classes 
for those needing such attention. In addition, in a city of a 
quarter of a million inhabitants, one would expect to find spe- 
cial classes provided for the seriously aenemic, the tubercular, 
those of defective speech, the overaged and backward, the de- 
fective, the deaf, and perhaps the blind. It is a waste of money 
and energy to try to teach such children in classes with normal 
children, and it also is not fair to them or to normal children. 
Play activities should also be emphasized, good health super- 
vision should be provided, and good instruction in hygienic liv- 
ing should be given in the schools. An educational system which 
is conscious of its social mission is engaged in far more than 
mere instruction; its purpose is to so use instruction as to do 
the most possible for every boy and girl under its care. 

Finally, we should expect such a school system to cover 
this rich course of instruction in eight years of time; save as 
large a percentage as possible from dropping out before the 
completion of the course; and get its pupils into high school 
work by the age of fourteen to fifteen. 

2. SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Vocational education, of a number of types, should be avail- 
able for those completing the course and not desiring to enter 
the regulation high-school course. Such instruction should in- 
volve the homekeeping arts for girls, some of the trades for 
boys, and certain lines of specialized work in drawing and of 
business work for both. In addition, a wide range of high school 
education should be available for all, and an effort should be 
made to make this so varied and so thorough that a large per- 
centage of those finishing the elementary-school course would 
feel the necessity of going on and graduating from some one of 
the high-school courses before beginning their life work. To 



CHAP. VII. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SUCH A CITY 91 

make this the case the high school instruction should relate 
itself closely to the needs of the city itself. 

College-Preparatory Subjects 

In such a business and residential city as Portland, with 
man}' beautiful homes and many attractive cottages, a people of 
good native stock, and a people of much means and means well 
distributed, there will naturally be a large and a constant de- 
mand for instruction in the older types of college-preparatory 
subjects, — the languages, history, English, mathematics, and the 
older sciences. These we would expect to find offered in a 
number of the high schools, and taught in the best manner and 
by the best teachers obtainable. To meet growing civic needs, 
good instruction in economics and American history should be 
provided as well. 

Technical Courses 

For those desiring a general education, but of a more tech- 
nical type, good instruction in courses of a polytechnic nature — 
mathematics,- the physical sciences, drawing, and shop work for 
the boys, and drawing, art work, the sciences, and the home- 
keeping arts for the girls— should also be provided. A good 
manual-arts course, including instruction in electricity, machine- 
shop work, plumbing and sanitary engineering, the printing and 
book-binding trades, millinery, dressmaking, and designing of 
many kinds, might also be provided with advantage. Whether 
taught in special high schools, or offered in each of the general 
or so-called cosmopolitan high schools, we might reasonably ex- 
pect to find such instruction provided, in one form or the other, 
in a city of such a character as Portland. 

Commercial and Agricultural High Schools 

Two other prominent needs of such a city as Portland, 
located as it is and with its large future just ahead of it, are 
the best quality of instruction in commerce and in agriculture. 
The commercial business of Portland, and not manufacturing, 
will probably ever be its prime interest, and agriculture will be 
its second largest interest and source of income. Properly to 
meet such present and future needs we might reasonably expect 
such a city to maintain, in addition to the more general com- 
mercial courses, a large commercial high school of the first 
rank, where careful preparation could be made to meet the large 
and increasing commercial needs of the city. Besides offering 
an excellent form of education, such a school would give large 
financial returns to the business interests of the community. 
The trade of Portland is certain to expand rapidly, as popula- 
tion increases, and the merchant class of Portland should have 



92 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

at hand the best training available for their business work. The 
same is equally true of agricultural instruction. An agricultural 
high school of the best class, in which all the instruction was 
developed from an agricultural standpoint, would offer instruc- 
tion to young people of high educational value, would direct 
many young people into useful and profitable life careers, and 
be a paying investment for the business interests of the city 
as well. 

3. PUBLIC SCHOOL EXTENSION 

We have only recently begun to extend the school to meet 
the various needs of our people, and, excepting night schools, 
which have been maintained generally for many years, many 
cities have not as yet done much to meet the needs of their peo- 
ple. On the other hand, many of our wealthier cities have made 
very commendable beginnings, and it is only a question of time 
until all will be forced to do so. A generation hence public 
education will be a much more important undertaking than it 
is today. Such work ought to include evening high schools, 
especially of the vocational type; evening elementary schools, 
of a type different from the day schools, and for the instruc- 
tion of foreigners in our language and form of political life, 
and for instruction in applied science and art; evening lectures 
and scientific demonstrations, covering a wide range of subjects, 
for adults; summer schools for the more energetic, and summer 
vocational schools of various types; and well-directed play- 
grounds, open all summer after school hours, and on Sundays 
and holidays, and with attendants in charge not only to direct 
the play, but also to give particular attention to individual needs 
in the line of health and physical development. 

Portland's Special Educational Opportunity 

The laws of the State of Oregon require that all children 
in the state, unless excused for certain specified reasons, "be- 
tween and including the ages of nine and fifteen years of age," 
shall attend a public school for the full time such public school 
is held in the district. This is interpreted to mean that all chil- 
dren must enter school by the time they are nine, at latest, and 
must remain in school until they reach their sixteenth birthday. 
The schools of Portland are in session ten months in the year, 
and children usually enter at six or seven years of age. This 
gives Portland an unusual opportunity to ensure the proper edu- 
cation of all of her future citizens. 

In a community such as Portland, composed of excellent 
stock, largely American, and with but few foreign-born children 
in the schools; a city of intelligence, and with wealth sufficient 
to provide for any educational needs; a quiet, law-abiding com- 



CHAP. VII. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SUCH A CITY 93 

munity; and a city offering few opportunities for children to 
work in mills or manufacturing establishments, it ought to be 
possible to put practically every child in the community through 
a six-years' elementary and a three-years' intermediate school 
course, and to offer to such not only good instruction in the 
fundamentals of learning but to offer some pre-vocational op- 
portunities and instruction for all as well. Nothing less than 
this ought to be the aim and the ambition of the school authori- 
ties of the district, and the instruction and the promotional rate 
ought to be shaped to this end. We should expect to find, then, 
every reasonable provision to facilitate the progress of the chil- 
dren through the grades; no large number of repeaters or over- 
age children in the grades; and no marked falling off of children 
after the sixth grade, as is common in many other cities. 

Such is an outline of what a city of the size, wealth, social 
composition, political importance, and commercial future of 
Portland might reasonably be expected to provide for its chil- 
dren, and for its citizens. 

In the next chapter the educational offering of the city, 
elementary and secondary, is stated, from which one who reads 
can see to what extent the city school system measures up to 
what might reasonably be expected of it. 

Following this, in Chapters IX, X, and XI, the needed changes 
and additions are outlined, and a constructive program for the 
city set forth. While there are slight duplications in Chapters 
IX and XI, as to recommended improvements, it has seemed best 
to retain such, as the recommendations come from two city 
superintendents of schools whose school systems are noted for 
their efficient work. 



94 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Chapter VIII 

THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY 

INSTRUCTION 

(Prefatory Note) 

The part of this report contained in this and the following 
chapter is based on annual reports, courses of study, rules and 
regulations, of the Portland schools; together with a personal 
study of the schools in operation, from April 7 to April 2i, in- 
cluding many conferences with principals, teachers, superin- 
tendent, assistant superintendents, and members of the Board 
of School Directors. In the personal study of the schools it was 
thought preferable to devote all of the limited time to a few 
schools, that might be considered typical, rather than to divide 
the time among all the schools. Carrying out this plan, the fol- 
lowing schools were studied : The three high schools, one day 
being devoted to each; the School of Trades, one forenoon; the 
School for the Deaf, one short afternoon; the School for Defec- 
tives, a part of one morning; the Brooklyn School, one forenoon; 
the Highland School, one full day; the Arleta School, one full 
day; the Glencoe School, one morning; the Holladay School, one 
full day; the Couch School, one forenoon; the Failing School, one 
forenoon; and the Shattuck School, one afternoon. The inspec- 
tion of the work of the elementary schools was so planned that 
some exercises were seen in all subjects; in the principal sub- 
jects, — reading, language, arithmetic, geography and history,— 
exercises were seen in every grade of each subject, and usually 
in more than one class, sometimes in several classes of a grade. 

Conferences of one to three hours were held with the prin- 
cipal of each one of the schools studied. At these conferences 
searching inquiry was made into the purpose, work, difficulties, 
and shortcomings of the school, from the standpoint of the 
principal. 

Such is approximately the scope of the studies on which this 
section of this critical report is based. This is made known at 
the outset, so that one reading this section of the report may 
judge for himself of the reliability and justification of general- 
izations that are obviously based largely or wholly on personal 
investigation of the schools at work. The facts that the studies 
of all the elementary schools, after the first one visited, revealed 
nothing of fundamental importance that was not evident in the 
first school, but served to confirm the chief characteristics of 
that first school; that several principals volunteered the assur- 
ance that to know one Portland grammar school was to know 
them all; and that the study of the Portland school system from 
every standpoint warrants the expectation of uniformity, seem 
to me to justify the belief that further studies would show that 
all generalizations made in this section may safely be accepted 
as reliable. Nevertheless, should anyone, particularly anyone 
conversant with all the Portland schools, contend that any gen- 
eralization here made, which is chiefly based on conditions 
found in the schools studied, is not true of the schools as a 
whole, I should not argue the point, for I have had no oppor- 
tunity to know anything through personal investigation of the 
work of three-fourths of the Portland schools. 

F. E. Spavjlding. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 95 

1. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 

In the working out of the local problem of education, as 
presented in the preceding chapter, and in adapting it to local 
needs and conditions, it is quite obvious that the following three 
simple, common-sense propositions must be observed: 

Three Fundamental, Working Principles 

First, the children and youth of the community must be 
constantly and sympathetically studied by teachers and princi- 
pals, in order that these may understand at all times the condi- 
tion, the capacity, the interests, and the educational needs of 
each child or youth; 

Second, the various present and prospective opportunities 
and needs of the community for worth}' service must also be 
studied, constantly and appreciatively, particularly by those 
immediately responsible for the education of youth soon to be 
called upon to take effective part in the occupations and life of 
the community; and 

Third, the instruction of each child and youth — the content, 
the method, and the immediate purpose of that instruction — must 
be constantly adapted to the needs of that child or youth, in the 
light of the needs of the community. 

Only through the intelligent and constant observance of these 
three propositions in practice is it possible for the schools to 
perform the largest service to the children and youth of the com- 
munity and to the community itself. Indeed, these three propo- 
sitions constitute the three comprehensive, fundamental, work- 
ing principles on which any adequate system of education for 
this, or for any other American community, must be based. More- 
over, these principles must be constantly observed, not alone 
in the general administration of the school system, but equally 
in the minute details of schoolroom procedure; they must be 
observed alike by school board, by superintendent and assistant 
superintendents, by supervisors, principals, and teachers. 

Constant Changes Necessary 

The observance of these principles will lead to constant 
changes throughout the school system: — changes in the courses 
of study, changes in the types of schools; changes in the organi- 
zation of the various types of schools into a harmonious system; 
changes in the organization within the individual schools, and 
within the individual classrooms; changes in the immediate 
aims, and in the detailed methods of instruction of every teacher. 
The constant changes which the observance of these principles 
must determine will indicate, not anarchy; not lack of pur- 
pose, plan or system; but the continuously progressive adapta- 



96 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

tion of forms, instruments, means and methods of education to 
the ever varying needs of different children and youth, and to 
the ever changing and growing needs of the community for 
service. The observance of these principles, with the constant 
changes that their observance will necessitate, will insure the 
unity and continuity of intelligent effort to make the most possi- 
ble of every child and youth of the community, that both the in- 
dividual and the community may profit to the utmost. 

The Most Fundamental Principle Observed in the Present Con- 
duct of the Portland School System Is the Maintenance Un- 
changed of a Rigidly Prescribed, Mechanical System, Poorly 
Adapted to the Needs Either of the Children or of the Com- 
munity 

To what extent are the three fundamental, working princi- 
ples which we have just described, now observed in the conduct 
of the Portland schools? Almost not at all, consciously and in- 
tentionally; certainly in practice they are not accepted in any 
degree as fundamental, guiding principles. The universal prac- 
tice — whether approved or disapproved by those participating 
in it — is enlisted in the maintenance of a rigid, minutely, and 
mechanically prescribed system of instruction, organization, ad- 
ministration, supervision, examination, and inspection. Any 
change in this elaborate mechanism meets with resistance, posi- 
tive as well as negative. So far as this system is adapted at any 
point to the actual needs of the individual children and youth 
that come under it, so far as it is adapted to the needs of the 
community for adequately trained recruits to serve the com- 
munity, the adaptation is accidental,— not the result of intelli- 
gence now operative at that point. 

School Board and Superintendent, as Well as Principals, Teachers 
and Pupils, Are Victims of the System for Which No One 
Is Primarily Responsible 

So far as we have been able to learn, the spirit and funda- 
mental outlines of this rigid, mechanical system antedate the 
beginnings of the services of those now longest connected with 
the schools. No single individual, no single group or class of 
individuals, at present within or without the school system, can 
fairly be held responsible, either primarily or chiefly, for the 
system as it today exists. Of course, the seat of the authority 
that maintains, and that has long maintained this system, is to 
be found somewhere in the school board, in the superintendent 
and his assistants; but the school board, the superintendent and 
his assistants, are today manifestly the victims, whether willing 
or unwilling, of the system that they help to maintain, just as 
truly, if not as fully, as is every principal, teacher, and pupil 
in the schools. And these officials will continue to Tte the volun- 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 97 

tary or involuntary servants of a system for which it ought to 
be possible to hold some one primarily and chiefly responsible, 
so long as authority is merely "seated somewhere" among them; 
authority and corresponding responsibility must be definitely 
centered, as has been pointed out in Chapter III, as a primary 
condition of the escape of any or all from the universally op- 
pressive incubus of the present system. 

Did the solution of the local educational problem lie in the 
maintenance of a rigidly uniform, mechanical system of instruc- 
tion, we should have only commendation for the system that 
prevails here. We have never known another mechanical school 
system that was worked out and carried out so logically, so 
consistently, and so completely. Personally, those who are ear- 
nestly maintaining this system are deserving of much credit for 
hard, painstaking work, and for loyalty — to the system. 
This Study Has to Do With the System Primarily, With Person- 
alities Only Incidentally 

In attempting to evaluate Portland's present educational ac- 
tivities, it is apparent that we shall have to deal primarily with 
this long-established, mechanical system, which is the one uni- 
versally and overwhelmingly dominant factor, to study the ef- 
fects of this system in the principal phases of local educational 
effort. We shall have to do only incidentally with the personali- 
ites of those that now chance to be engaged in maintaining this 
system. Whenever reference is made to individuals, such refer- 
ence must be understood to be purely impersonal. 

The Purpose of This Study Is Wholly Constructive 

Let is also be understood that our sole purposes in setting 
forth the inadequacies and the positive defects of the present 
system are, first, to make apparent to everyone, especially to 
those now directly involved in the maintenance of that system, 
the necessity of breaking the system's benumbing power; and, 
second, to prepare the way for an appreciative understanding 
of those principles and ideals of intelligent procedure that will 
be advocated in place of the present mechanism. The purpose 
of our critical study is wholly constructive; it is destructive only 
incidentally and unavoidably. 

2. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM 

What Is the Nature of Portland's Mechanical and Uniform Sys- 
tem? What Are Its Effects and Its Defects? 

The system, so far as it is revealed within the schools, cen- 
ters in the course of study, and consists largely of the course 



98 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

of study and of the means and methods employed in carrying 
out that course of study. Table 14, opposite this page, shows 
the scope and arrangement of the present elementary curriculum; 
more than that, it appropriately suggests, but scarcely exagger- 
ates, the mechanism that attends the administration of this cur- 
riculum, almost from the beginning to the end. For the sake 
of clearness, the elementary and the high school work will be 
studied separately. 

The Elementary Curriculum Vivisected Into Fifty-four Dead 

Pieces 

As indicated by the Roman numerals above, the elementary 
curriculum is first divided into nine parts, or grades; then each 
of these grades is halved, as shown by the letters A and B; 
finally, each half grade is divided into three parts, numbered 
in order. Thus at the outset is the elementary curriculum, that 
should be instinct with life in the minds of principals, teachers, 
and pupils, vivisected with mechanical accuracy into fifty-four 
dead pieces. This is no mere figure of speech; nor does the 
mechanical dismemberment of the curriculum exist merely in 
the diagram which the author of this study has drawn. The 
city's published course of study, the system of examinations, 
the scheme of advancing pupils, the method and spirit of the 
supervision or inspection, and finally the actual work in the 
school rooms, all, in perfect mechanical harmony, reveal a dead, 
fifty-four times disjointed curriculum. 

What Is a Living Curriculum? 

We shall examine critically, in some detail, the contents of 
this dead curriculum, and the chief means of administering it; 
but first, let us consider for a moment this one characteristic 
of death, as contrasted with that of life in a curriculum. A liv- 
ing curriculum, while it may be, for the most part should be, 
broadly outlined on paper, has its real existence in the minds 
of teachers, principals and supervisors; it is plastic and adapt- 
able, constantly undergoing changes in emphasis of its various 
parts, even to the elimination of some entirely and the substitu- 
tion of others, as the sympathetically studied needs of the par- 
ticular children to be taught seem to require; the living curricu- 
lum ministers practically to the ever and almost infinitely vary- 
ing needs of boys and girls, no two of whom were made alike 
or destined to be made alike; the living curriculum serves as 
readily and as well the child whose mental processes depend 
on concrete things, as that one who readily grasps abstract ideas; 
the living curriculum serves the present needs of every pupil, 
whether those needs be the preparation for the next steps that 
will lead in due time through a college preparatory course to 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 



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100 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

college, university, and a professional career, or whether those 
needs are for skill of hand that will enable a youth to support 
himself honorably, within a year, by rendering some worthy 
service to the community. 

What Is a Dead 1 Curriculum? 

A dead curriculum — Portland's dead curriculum — is the stan- 
dard by which the living child is measured and to which he 
must conform; if the fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, or even eighteen 
year old child has not yet transferred to his memory parts thirty- 
seven to fifty-four inclusive of the dead and comminuted cur- 
riculum, the chief constituents of which, in these parts, are ab- 
stract arithmetic and technical grammar, then he must begin 
with part thirty-seven and appropriate that and each of the 
succeeding seventeen parts in order before he can even be as- 
sociated with youth of approximately his own age — an impor- 
tant matter educationally — before he can engage in studies suited 
to his age and condition, studies and exercises that will be of 
immediate and practical value to him in the effort that he must 
shortly make to serve society for the sake of his own livelihood. 

Some Effects of Portland's Dead Curriculum 

In June, 1913, there were, in all of the elementary schools 
of Portland, 100 boys and girls from fifteen to eighteen years 
of age just completing part thirty-nine of the elementary cur- 
riculum — in other words, completing grade 7A; at this same 
time there were 1310 more boys and girls of fifteen, sixteen, 
seventeen, eighteen, and a very few even of twenty to twenty-one 
years of age, who were completing the task of appropriating 
some one of the pieces of the curriculum between the thirty- 
ninth and the fifty-fourth. Here were altogether 1410 youth — 
more than the enrollment of the largest high school — healthy and 
strong physically, probably most of them normal mentally, though 
not brilliant in the memorizing of the printed page, everyone 
about to attempt his varied active part in the world's work, yet 
all doomed to the study — mainly the memorizing — of exactly the 
same pages, — pages prescribed, though scarcely more suitable, 
for the education of children from ten to twelve years of age, 
whose serious participation in the services of the community 
must necessarily be deferred from four to six years, and prob- 
ably, in most cases, are actually to be deferred much longer. 
On the above date there were 1347 children from nine to twelve 
years of age, working right beside those 1410 youth from fifteen 
to eighteen, doing, or trying to do, exactly the same work and 
in exactly the same way. 1 The following single, concrete illus- 



1 Figures taken from an age and class distribution table sup- 
plied by the School Clerk. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTEUCTION 101 

tration, extreme but wholly typical, will serve to reveal more 
effectively than further discussion the role that the elementary 
curriculum is made to play in the Portland schools. 

The Same Thoughtless Routine That Dominates the Regular 
Schools Prevails Just as Strongly in the Special School for 
the Deaf 

As a part of the Portland school system there is a School 
for the Deaf, "organized four years ago at the request of parents 
of deaf children, who wished to have their children educated 
by the pure oral method and keep them in a home environment 
while attending school," the object of which is "to reach those 
incapacitated from receiving the benefits offered under the regu- 
lar course of study." 2 

This school of about twenty-five pupils, quartered in cheer- 
less rooms in the Buckman school building, was visited on the 
afternoon of April 23. We pass no judgment whatever on the 
efficiency of its work in teaching articulation and lip-reading 
to its deaf pupils; our visit was too brief, were we competent, 
to pass such judgment. Our chief purpose in visiting this school 
was to find out what those who are conducting it are trying 
to make of their afflicted pupils; what they are trying to do, 
recognizing the handicap under which their pupils must live 
all their lives, no matter how successful the school may be in 
teaching articulation and lip-reading, — what they are trying to 
do to discover and to train discriminatingly the particular possi- 
bilities of each child, to the end that each one may become self- 
supporting and independent, capable of rendering to the com- 
munity service that the community requires, and so entitled to 
receive from the community adequate compensation. 

Anticipating our visit to this school, we could not believe 
it possible that we should find here also the same unthinking 
routine that we had hitherto found universally in the regular 
elementary schools, — the routine of carrying out the mechanic- 
ally prescribed curriculum, without regard either for the pupils' 
individual needs or for the usefulness of the prescriptions in 
fitting anyone for the service of society. But our anticipations 
were not realized; for we found that unthinking routine — ac- 
centuated by conditions that cry out for something so entirely 
different — dominates this school for the deaf as completely as 
it does every other. The sole discoverable reason for the segre- 
gation of the pupils of this school is to teach them articulation 
and lip-reading so that they may take identically the same course 
of study that every normal child must take! The head teacher 
of this school, in response to questions, declared it to be the 
purpose of the school to make deaf children just as nearly like 
normal children as possible; hence, in carrying out this purpose, 



2 Course of Study, 1912-13, p. 135. 



102 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

their chief aim is to teach exactly the same subjects, to main- 
tain the same standards, to pass the same examinations, that are 
taught, maintained, and passed in the regular schools. The 
official description of the school, indeed, is in full harmony with 
the purpose that animates its head. "The course of study of 
the city schools," so runs this description, "is followed as closely 
as possible."^ 

Trying to Make Deaf Children Normal by Teaching Them 
Technical Grammar! 

Of course the purpose of making a deaf child like a normal 
child, in the sense of overcoming so far as possible the deaf 
child's defect, so that in the life that he leads his deafness may 
be no considerable handicap, is entirely practical and most com- 
mendable. But to think of accomplishing this result merely by 
requiring the deaf child to learn the same amount of abstract 
arithmetic and technical grammar that the normal child is com- 
pelled to learn! 

"Technical Grammar Broadens the Mind." 

Among the pupils of the school, most of whom, as might 
be expected, are much over-age in comparison with the work 
of the curriculum with which they are engaged, was observed 
a boy with the physical proportions of a good-sized man. 

"How old is this boy?" we asked. 

"He is seventeen," replied the head teacher. 

"How long has be been here, and what is he studying now?" 

"He has been here a year and a half; he is now doing fifth 
grade work." 

"How long will he probably continue in school?" 

"Three years or more." 

"Will he be required to pursue the same course that all pupils 
now in the fifth grade must pursue, technical grammar and all?" 

"Yes, it is our aim to make him like normal children." 

"But what good will so many years' study of purely technical 
grammar do this young man who, presumably, must soon try 
to earn his own living in some way?" 

"Why, technical grammar broadens the mind!" replied the 
head of the school, obviously somewhat surprised at the question. 

Think of it! Three or more years' study of technical gram- 
mar to "broaden the mind" of a youth now in grade five, strug- 
gling with part twenty-six of the rigid educational mechanism, 
but already old enough either to be through with his secondary 
education or to be out of school bearing a man's part in the 
world's work! What will this unfortunate young man be able 
to do at twenty-one, when he goes out from this child's school, 



3 Course of Study, 1912-13, p. 135. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 103 



his sole trained equipment a mind "broadened" by several years' 
study of technical grammar? 

Mechanical Uniformity to the Fifty-fourth Part of Every Subject 
Prescribed in the Curriculum Is the Universal Ideal of the 
Elementary Schools 

The treatment of this boy — young man — makes to stand out 
clearly, but does not exaggerate in the least, the spirit and the 
thoughtless routine that dominates the elementary schools. The 
only recognition accorded the individualities of pupils, no mat- 
ter how much they differ through peculiar strength, weakness 
or defect, is the recognition that the school mechanism compels; 
their treatment varies only in so far as it is necessary to vary 
it temporarily that everyone may learn exactly the same things 
and in the same way — from part one to part fifty-four inclusive 
— that every one else must learn. All must be made just as nearly 
alike as possible. To this mechanical end every phase of the 
elementary curriculum and its administration seems to be ad- 
justed — and very nicety and thoughtfully adjusted. This adjust- 
ment can best be revealed through a brief analysis and examina- 
tion of the several chief aspects of the curriculum and of its 
administration. 

The Mechanical Form and Prescriptions of the Elementary 
Course of Study 

The form in which the elementary course of study is out- 
lined and prescribed is characteristic of the universal mechanism. 
Following is a sample : 

Seventh B Grade 

PART FORTY. 

READING. 

Cyr's Fifth Reader, pages 97 to 142. 

ARITHMETIC. 

Smith's Practical Arithmetic, pages 202 to 216. 
(For forms of analysis read Parts 21 and 22.) 

LANGUAGE. 

(1) Buehler's Grammar, pages 81 to 95, inclusive. 

(2) and (3) See Part 31. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

Natural School Geographv, pages 124 to 137, to end of 
"China." 

(Pages 40, 41 and 42) Map Drawing— The Humboldt Geo- 
graphical Note Book, Part 4 (No. 51), pages 15 to 32, inclusive. 



104 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

SPELLING. 

(Parts 40, 41 and 42.) 

Reed's Word Lessons, pages 115 to 127, inclusive. 

WRITING. 

Outlook Writing System No. 6. 

DRAWING. 

Prang's Text Book of Art Education, Book VI. 

MUSIC. 

New Educational Third Music Reader. 

PHYSIOLOGY. 

Krohn's Graded Lessons in Physiology and Hygiene, Chap- 
ters X, XI and XII. 

PART FORTY- ONE. 

READING. 

Cyr's Fifth Reader, pages 143 to 179. 

ARITHMETIC. 

Smith's Practical Arithmetic, pages 217 to 231. 
(For forms of analysis read Parts 21 and 22.) 

LANGUAGE. 

(1) Buehler's Grammar, pages 96 to 108, inclusive. 

(2) and (3) See Part 31. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

Natural School Geography, pages 137 to 149, to end of "Ha- 
waiian Islands." 

For work in Spelling, Writing, Drawing, Music, Physiology 
and Map Drawing, see Part 40. 

PART FORTY-TWO. 

READING. 

Cyr's Fifth Reader, pages 187 to 228. 

ARITHMETIC 

Smith's Practical Arithmetic, pages 232 to 245. 
(For forms of analysis read Parts 21 and 22.) 

LANGUAGE. 

(1) Buehler's Grammar, pages 110 to 121, inclusive. 

(2) and (3) See Part 31. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

Natural School Geography. Take supplements: (1) Insular 
Possession, (2) Oregon. 

For work in Spelling, Writing, Drawing, Music, Physiology 
and Map Drawing, see Part 40. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 105 

This prescription for the Seventh B is fairly characteristic 
of the prescriptions for all the other grades, with these excep- 
tions. The outlines in arithmetic for the first four grades, that 
is through Fourth B, covering the method of presenting the chief 
topics to beginners, are full, detailed, suggestive and helpful to 
the teacher; there are also given brief outlines of method in 
reading and language for the first grade. With these and two 
or three other similar, but much less important exceptions, the 
entire elementary course of study as placed in the hands of 
teachers and principals for execution consists in an arithmetical 
division by pages, and fractions of pages, of prescribed text- 
books. 

Obviously, the only thought devoted to the formulation of 
the course of study was the simple mathematical thought neces- 
sary to parcel out the pages of books as indicated. This becomes 
plainly apparent when one follows through several grades the 
prescriptions in a single subject. For illustration, the prescrip- 
tions in geography, beginning with Sixth A and continuing 
through Seventh B, are from the Natural School Geography and 
are as follows: 

Sixth A 

Part Thirty-one: Pages 5 to 19, to end of "Wearing Away 
of Land." 

Part Thirty-two: Pages 19 to 30, to end of "Government 
and Religion." 

Part Thirty-three: Pages 30 to 41, to end of "North 
America." 

Part Thirty-four: Pages 43 to 55, to beginning of "North- 
eastern Section." 

Part Thirty-five: Pages 55 to 66, to end of "West Virginia." 

Part Thirty-six: Pages 66 to 77, to end of "Southern Sec- 
tion." 

Part Thirty-seven: Pages 79 to 93, to end of "Central 
America." 

Part Thirty-eight: Pages 93 to 107, to end of "South 
America." 

Part Thirty-nine: Pages 109 to 124, to end of "Switzer- 
land." 

Part Forty: Pages 124 to 137, to end of "China." 

Part Forty-one: Pages 137 to 149, to end of "Hawaiian 
Tslands." 

Port Forty-two: Supplements, (1) Insular Possessions, (2) 
Oregon. 

Neither by example nor by precept do such outlines suggest 
to teachers and principals any thought of the function of the 
various prescribed subjects as means of education; any consid- 
eration of the relative importance for Portland children, not to 
mention different groups of Portland children, of the numerous 



106 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

topics treated in text-books designed for use throughout the 
country; any correlation in the treatment of closely related sub- 
jects; any adaptation of method to the educative ends sought 
through the use of this text-book material. On the contrary, 
whether so intended or not, the one all-dominating suggestion 
of the published course of study for the elementary schools is 
that so many pages of certain text-books are to be learned, and 
at a certain time and in a certain order. This suggestion, rein- 
forced by the system of uniform city examinations from the 
fourth grade on, and by supervisory inspection, has become the 
chief guiding purpose in the work of teachers above the primary 
grades; it could scarcely be otherwise. 

Some Significant Characteristics of the Content of the Elementary 
Course of Study 

In respect to content — and lack of content — the elementary 
course of study presents the following significant character- 
istics: (See Table 14, page 99.) 

1. The absolute uniformity of subject matter to be learned, 
both in kind, amount and order, by all pupils, and in all parts 
of the city, regardless of age, mental or physical characteristics, 
past experiences, or future prospects. 

2. The overwhelmingly abstract and bookish character of 
the course as a whole, offering far too little that is suitable to 
the education of that large minority, if not actual majority, of 
children who must be educated through contact with concrete 
things. 

3. The excessive amount of time given to technical gram- 
mar. 

4. Inadequate attention to composition, both oral and writ- 
ten. 

5. The excessive emphasis on theoretical, abstract arith- 
metic. 

6. Deferring the beginning of the study of United States 
History to the eighth grade, a point in the course which prob- 
ably at least one-third of all Portland children never reach. 

7. The limitation of nature study to the first two grades. 

3. THE SUBJECT MATTER FURTHER ANALYZED. 

If the bare statement of these characteristics is not suf- 
ficient, a brief discussion of them in order will suffice to reveal 
their chief significance. 

Subject Matter Rather Than the Child Made the Focus of 
Attention 

The uniformity of subject matter, both in kind and amount, 
can mean in practice only that the attention of teachers, and all 
concerned in educating children, is focused on definitely pre- 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 107 

scribed matter to be learned, — not on the diverse needs of the 
children to be educated. What should be the variable in the 
process of education is made fixed; the endlessly variable of 
human characteristics and needs is ignored. 

No Adequate Provision for the Effective Education of a Large 
Portion of Children 

It has been demonstrated in schools over and over again, 
and is a matter of the most common observation, that a very 
large proportion of children learn with much difficulty from 
books, especially when they advance beyond the simplest, con- 
crete ideas; that a large majority, not all, of these same children 
are naturally intelligent, are as capable of improvement through 
education adapted to them, as are children who learn more read- 
ily from books. Portland's elementary course of study provides 
very little indeed — only a bit of manual training and sewing, 
not more than the easiest book-learner ought to have — that is 
suitable for the adequate education of this type of child. This 
deficiency in the course of study is doubtless responsible in no 
small degree for the large number of over-age pupils in the 
grammar grades, and for the failure of many of these over-age 
pupils to remain in school after the period of compulsory at- 
tendance has been completed. 

Excessive Attention Given to Technical Grammar Largely 
Wasted Effort 

In the published course of study the general term "lan- 
guage" is used to designate work both in technical grammar and 
in composition. In practice three exercises per week are devoted 
to the former, and two to the latter. So far as could be dis- 
covered by listening to several exercises, both in grammar and 
in composition, and by talking with teachers, these subjects, 
as taught, are just about as independent as arithmetic and his- 
tory. It does not appear that grammar, in the elementary course 
of stud^v, is contributing "to a deeper appreciation of literature 
and to the development of power in composition," as the Sylla- 
bus of the Course in English 4 for the Portland High Schools 
rightly maintains to be the sole function of this subject. 

The grammar prescribed is abstract and technical in the ex- 
treme, and the assignment for every grade far beyond the real 
comprehension of most pupils of that grade. Beginning with 
Third B, and continuing through Sixth A, pupils have been re- 
quired to study, in "Modern English Lessons," about as much 
grammar as could be made of practical value in the entire ele- 
mentary course; but with Sixth B the intensive study of tech- 
nical grammar begins in real earnest. From this point on, the 
assignments are from Buehler's "Modern English Grammar," a 

4 Page 5. 



108 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



book best suited to high school grades, usable in the highest 
grammar grade, but entirely out of place in sixth and seventh 
grades. After three and one-half years' study of this technical 
book in the elementary schools, from page 15 to page 358 in- 
clusive, the same book is again prescribed for three years of 
further study in the high schools! To make the matter worse 
the high school instruction begins at the beginning, with the sim- 
ple sentence and the parts of speech. 

It is scarcely too much to say that the time now devoted to 
technical grammar in grades six to nine inclusive is wasted. 
In these grades not more than one-half as much time as now 
should be given to grammar, and that not technical, but prac- 
tical and comprehensible to the pupil. 

Composition Neglected 

The time and attention devoted to composition is as inade- 
quate as that devoted to grammar is excessive. While two exer- 
cises per week are given to the former and three to the latter, 
composition does not appear actually to receive as much as 
two-fifths of the effort expended on "language." It is quite pos- 
sible that the final term examinations are largely responsible for 
the preponderance of emphasis on grammar, out of proportion 
to the time allotment. However this may be, typical term ex- 
aminations fairly represent the relative importance that seems 
to be accorded these two phases of "language"; in these examina- 
tions the relative value of composition, as compared with that 
of grammar, certainly appears as something less than the ratio 
of two to three. Following is a copy of the final term examina- 
tion, given in Januarj', 1913, and covering the work in grammar 
for the seventh grade : 

Grammar Examination Questions — Seventh Grade 

part 37. 
I. (a) Define Complement. 

(b) Give example of each kind of complement in a sentence. 
II. (a) Select the complements in the following, tell the Tcind, 
giving reason for your answer in each case : 

1. A soft answer turneth away wrath. 

2. The great forest became the home of Robin Hood. 

3. They considered him a brave sea-captain, 
(b) Define Indirect Object. 

part 38. 
I. (a) Define a modifier. 

(b) What is the difference between a phrase and a clause? 

(c) Construct a sentence in which the subject is modified 

by a phrase; one in which the verb is modified by 
a clause. 
II. Tell whether the underlined words are objects, attribute 
complements, or modifiers : 
Some men turned traitors. 
Some men turned away. 
Some men turned their heads. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 109 

PART 39. 

I. (a) Point out the indirect object in the following: 
Edward gave us some blotters, 
(b) Change your sentence into the passive form. 
II. (a) Define an appositive. 

(b) Construct a sentence containing an appositive. 

(c) Diagram (Written Analysis) 

Some boys from our school played a fine game of 
football yesterday. 

part 40. 

I. (a) Select the substantive phrases and clauses in the fol- 
lowing sentences and give their use: 
It is now possible to cross the Atlantic in five days. 
I asked Grace if she would lend me a pencil. 
All age and youth must learn the truth, 
That nothing pays that's wrong, 
(b) Construct a sentence with a clause used as subject; one 
containing a clause used as attribute complement. 

In these sentences point out the subject and verb 
in each clause. 

II. (a) What is an Independent Element? 

(b) In the following sentences select the independent ele- 
ments and clasify them: 
Jump, boys! It's our last chance! 
We grumble a little now and then, to be sure. 

part 41. 

I. (a) How are sentences classified with respect to form? 

(b) Write a sentence illustrating each. 

(c) Tell the kind of sentence and give reason: 

1. God has made America the schoolhouse of the 

world. 

2. A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand 

oils the wheels as they run. 

3. Smooth runs the water where the brook runs 

deep. 

II. (a) What is an elliptical sentence? 

(b) Complete the following sentences: 

1. He was busy while here. 

2. He entered, hat in hand, and sat down. 

3. The truth is better expressed by Solomon than 

him. 

part 42. 

I. (a) What is meant by "parts of speech"? 

(b) How can one determine to what part of speech a word 

belongs? 

(c) Define pronoun, adjective, adverb. 
II. (a) Tell the part of speech of each word: 

1. The lowing herd winds slowly homeward. 

2. The Danish king could not stop the ocean tide. 

3. I do not doubt his strange story. 



110 SCHOOL SURVEY HE PORT 



The examinations in grammar given at the same time and 
covering the work of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, were 
nearly as extensive for each grade as the above. At the same 
time the examination in composition for all these grades — four, 
five, six, and seven — consisted of the following, which was the 
identical examination given to these grades in June, 1912: 

COMPOSITION TEST 
January, 1913. 

Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Grades 

The subject matter of composition will be taken from the 
term's work in reading. Each teacher will select all or part of 
some lesson read by the class during the term, read it aloud 
once, and require the pupils to reproduce it in such language as 
they can command. Care should be taken to see that no pupil 
has access to any reading book while undergoing examination 
in composition. Unless physically incapacitated the teacher 
should read the selection herself, rather than delegate such duty 
to a pupil. In fact, no pupil should have anv inkling of the sub- 
ject matter of the composition until it is read by the teacher. 

Too Much Time Devoted to Abstract Arithmetic 

Arithmetic claims an undue amount of time and attention, 
both at the very beginning of the elementary course, and, as a 
purely abstract subject, in the higher grammar grades. Most 
children can master number facts at six and even five years of 
age, and many of this age begin to develop some reasoning 
powers; but, as has been shown in the work of many excellent 
schools, only a little time can be spent to the best advantage on 
arithmetic in the first grade. If the systematic and serious 
study of this subject is postponed until the second, or even until 
the third grade, it is found that by the end of the fourth grade 
pupils are as far advanced in their arithmetical knowledge as 
they are when arithmetic i< de ;• •■ i uipal subject from the 
very beginning. 

In the higher grammar grades the present course in abstract 
arithmetic — abstract for inexperienced pupils, even though using 
concrete terms — might advantageously give place to algebra and 
constructive geometr}' for those pupils whose interests are best 
served by the pursuit of abstract mathematics in high school and 
perhaps beyond, and to practical applications to concrete things, 
with which they are actualW dealing, for those pupils whose ed- 
ucation needs to be concrete instead of bookish. 

One-third of All Pupils Receive no Systematic Instruction in 
United States History 

The most elementary education should include some sys- 
tematic knowledge of the history of our country. The sound- 
ness of this proposition is evidently recognized in the provision 
for the study of history in the highest two grammar grades. But 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 111 

this provision does not reach at all the need of probably one- 
third of all children who never reach the eighth grade, and only 
partially meets that of probably one-fourth of those who, en- 
tering the eighth grade, fail to complete the ninth. 

It is desirable for all pupils, and of prime importance for 
those who are not to complete the elementary course, that the 
systematic study of the history of the United States be begun with 
the fifth or sixth grade, and covered in a simple way by the 
end of the seventh. There are several text-books available for 
this purpose, presenting the matter largely from the biographical 
standpoint, and well suited to the interest and capacity of pupils 
of the grades indicated. 

The Course in Nature Study Quite Inadequate 

A practical, concrete course in nature study, based not on 
books, but on the phenomerta of nature themselves, ought to form 
a part of every elementary school curriculum, from the lowest 
to the highest grade. Such a course, correlated with language, 
literature, physiology, and geography, and efficiently carried out, 
would do something to modify Portland's present predominantly 
abstract and bookish courses. The present course in nature 
study, limited to the lowest two primary grades, is outlined in a 
way much better adapted, so far as it goes, to higher grammar 
grades than to the lowest primary. 

4. THE SYSTEM OF PROMOTIONAL EXAMINATIONS. 
Nature of the Examinations 

The system of examinations for the promotion of pupils from 
grade to grade, beginning with Fourth A, is in complete har- 
mony with the form and spirit of the course of study; indeed, 
the examinations are really a necessary complement to the course 
of study. As has already been seen, the course of study pre- 
scribes, chiefly by designating pages and portions of pages, just 
what shall be learned in each of the fifty- four parts into which 
the elementary school course is divided with something like 
mathematical precision; uniform examinations for the city, is- 
sued under the direction of the superintendent, assume to test, 
part by part, every pupil's success in taking the fifty-four pre- 
scriptions. Samples of these examinations have been quoted. 
These uniform examinations are given at the end of each term, or 
half-year of work, and each one covers three of the fifty-four 
parts of the curriculum. Mid-term examinations of similar char- 
acter and purpose are given under the direction of the elementary 
school principals, each principal controlling the examinations 
in his own school. 

A pupil's promotion depends, one-half upon the results of 
these two formal examinations, and one-half upon the teacher's 



112 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

estimate of his daily recitations, in this way: Of a possible 
maximum of one hundred credits in any subject, fifty — ten each 
month for the term — may be secured on daily recitations, twenty 
on the principal's mid-term examination, and thirty on the su- 
perintendent's final examination. While nominally the exam- 
inations count only one-half, and the final examination only 
thirty per cent toward the possible maximum number of credits, 
the effect of the whole scheme — and it must almost inevitably 
be so — is to concentrate the efforts of teachers and pupils on 
preparation for the passing of the final examinations. Under 
these conditions the best teacher can scarcely avoid adjusting 
her efforts, not in the way that she thinks will best serve the 
educational interests of her pupil, but in the way that she thinks 
will best prepare the pupil for passing an examination, issued 
by one who probably never even saw that pupil, and who cer- 
tainly has no intimate knowledge of the pupil's capacity and 
needs. 

Efforts Distorted by Anticipations of Examinations 

With scarcely an exception, the several principals and 
teachers, with whom the system of examinations was discussed 
at length, expressed emphatic disapproval, and based their dis- 
approval on sound pedagogical grounds. Most of them felt that 
the examinations were "catchy," that, as one expressed it, some 
unimportant foot-note was quite likely to be made the subject 
of examination. With such anticipations concerning the ex- 
aminations, what else can teachers be expected to do than to 
spend much of their best effort in preparing their pupils — 
which means chiefly storing their memories — with relatively un- 
important facts, that they may be able to answer the "catchy" 
questions that are likely to occur in the examinations? Under 
these conditions, neither pupils nor teachers are in an attitude 
to pursue a subject on its merits, to give much or little attention 
to the various facts and phases of that subject in accordance 
with the real relative importance of those facts and phases; their 
efforts and judgment are constantly distorted by the desire to 
fortify themselves against examination attacks at points that 
would ordinarily, and probably rightly, be more or less neg- 
lected. So in addition to the constantly distorting influence of 
the thought of the probable character of examinations, it seems 
to be the practice to give at least one full week to a special 
preparation for the final term examinations. 

Whether the prevalent conception of teachers and principals 
regarding the final examinations is justified or not— two complete 
sets of these examinations that have been studied, somewhat care- 
fully, seem scarcely to warrant the characterization of "catchy" 
— is of no consequence in this connection; the effect of their 
conception on their work is the same. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 113 



Examination Time Spent Unprofitable 

The time actually given up to the final examinations, one 
full week at the end of each term, is worthy of consideration. 
Is one-twentieth of every term profitably spent in exercises 
whose chief or sole purpose is to reveal to teachers what they 
already know? Any competent teacher ought to know, thinks 
she knows, and probably does know, as much about the ability 
of at least nine-tenths of her pupils before as after one of these 
formal examinations. But has the final examination some other 
purpose than a revelation of the pupil's knowledge, or lack of 
knowledge? Is it given as a means of instruction to the pupil? 
If so, then the exemption of pupils from final examinations 
under certain conditions, as is done, giving them a week's vaca- 
tion—rather depriving them of a week's instruction by which 
other pupils profit — is scarcely defensible. 

The Scheme of Promotion Advances Pupils According to Their 
Ability to Meet Fixed Requirements 

Just as the system of examinations is in complete harmony 
with the form and spirit of the course of study, so is the scheme 
of promotion in complete harmony with the form and spirit 
both of the course of study and of the system of examinations. 
These three complementary factors — course of study, examina- 
tions, promotion — make up the essential whole in the pupil's ed- 
ucational life. 

As the pupil acquires part by part, each one of the fifty- 
four parts of the course of study, and demonstrates his acqui- 
sitions in examinations, he is advanced on the educational high- 
way. Those who acquire easily what is prescribed for them, 
advance rapidly; those who take the prescriptions with diffi- 
culty, advance slowly. Some evidence that the scheme works is 
suggested by the fact that there are children of eleven, twelve, 
thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen years of age in every one of the 
elementary grades, from the first to the ninth.* This plan of 
advancement is as it should be — if education consists in learning 
certain prescribed things. It is as it should not be, if education 
consists in developing the natural capacities of children, through 
whatever means may be found most effective with each in- 
dividual child. 

5. THE CLASS-ROOM INSTRUCTION. 

Actual Instruction in the Class Rooms Generally in Harmony 
with the System 

Personal observation of the work and inquiry into the con- 
ditions, methods and results, in more than fifty elementary class 



* See 38th Annual Report, p. 32. The age and class dis- 
tribution sheet for June, 1913, shows the same thing to be true. 



114 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

rooms, in nine different buildings, showed the actual instruction 
in the schools to be, on the whole, in substantial harmony with 
the system as already described. The uniformitizing and 
mechanizing effects of the system were everywhere apparent in 
the grammar grades, but not so universally in the primary, par- 
ticularly in the first primary grades. 

Work in the Lowest Grades Good, Very Good, and Superior. 

On the whole, the work observed in the lowest three grades — 
the primary — was good, much of it very good, some of it dis- 
tinctly superior, — equal to the best that the observer has ever wit- 
nessed anywhere. The principal subjects of these grades, read- 
ing and arithmetic, were generally taught skillfully and by intel- 
ligent methods; several teachers manifested skill and ability in 
these subjects of very high order. In their classes, the results 
were quite remarkable, especially in reading; children of the 
first grade were able to read matter of considerable difficulty, 
and not previously seen, with fluency, understanding and good 
expression. While not much of the results of the instruction in 
primary arithmetic were observed, the methods in use, suggested 
by outlines and instructions from the superintendent's office, 
were intelligent, intelligible and interesting to the children. 

Work in the Grammar Grades Much Inferior to That in the 

Primary 

While several teachers of the grammar grades whose work 
was studied were probably equal in ability to the best of the pri- 
mary teachers, and while the grammar teachers on the whole 
seemed to compare favorably in ability with the primary teach- 
ers, the work observed in the grammar grades, both in methods 
and in results, seemed to be, as a whole, decidedly inferior to that 
observed in the primary. With few exceptions, and these only 
partial exceptions, and made such chiefly by contrast with the 
prevailing conditions, the regular class-room work in the gram- 
mar grades was characterized by routine, lack of originality of 
method, and absence of any evidence of genuine interest, not 
to say enthusiasm, in the work, both on the part of teachers and 
of pupils. While they were generally busy, even in a sense 
earnest, their busyness and earnestness seemed perfunctory and 
forced, rather than spontaneous and independent. Aside from 
several gymnastic exercises, which were generally good, and in 
some cases excellent, just one grammar school exercise was ob- 
served which was manifestly enlisting the deep and genuine in- 
terest, and calling forth the very best efforts of everyone taking 
part in it, teacher and pupils. That was an exercise in manual 
training. More specific observations on the work observed in 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 115 

the principal regular subjects are made with some reluctance, 
because of the few exercises that could be observed in any single 
subject. So far as these observations went, at least, these char- 
acterizations are warranted; others must determine whether or 
not they are more widely applicable. 

Reading Perfunctory 

The exercises in reading were perfunctory, lacking in in- 
terest and worthy purpose. The good work of the early primary 
grades seemed to have been lost in the progress upward. There 
are no examinations in this subject. Occupying the time allotted ■ 
according to schedule meets the requirements. 

Composition Very Poor 

The work in composition is scarcely better. Although this 
subject is examined, it is treated, as has already been pointed 
out, as of quite subordinate importance in comparison with tech- 
nical grammar. Although I inquired frequently, and on many oc- 
casions when I was investigating other subjects, in no single 
class-room was I able to find a single piece of a pupil's work in 
written composition in the possession of the teacher. No lit- 
erary or content value seemed to be attached by teachers or 
pupils to any of the latter's written work. Such work as teachers 
were able to secure from pupils for my inspection was pre- 
sented in pads of the greatest variety of size, shape, and appear- 
ance, but uniformly of very poor paper. The appearance of 
these pads as a whole, and of the individual pieces of composi- 
tion which they contained, was unattractive in the extreme — 
slovenly is not too strong a term to apply to most of this matter. 

There is no little evidence that attention in written com- 
position is focused almost entirely on form, to the neglect of 
content. The instruction observed and pupils' written work 
strongly indicated this. Indeed, in the published course of study 
for the grammar grades the only direction or suggestion regard- 
ing written composition strongly implies that correctness of 
form — which in practice almost invariably means correct spell- 
ing, correct use of capitals and marks of punctuation — consti- 
tutes the chief purpose of instruction in this subject. In the 
language prescription for Sixth A, Part thirty-one, occurs the 
following direction, to which reference is made in every one 
of the succeeding twenty-three parts of the grammar course: 

"There should be regular exercises in written composition. 
The work should for the most part be impromptu, the writing 
being done in the school room under the eye of the teacher. 

"The work should be criticized by having specimens placed 
on the blackboard. These specimens should then be made the 
subject of class criticism. All tvpical errors will be reached in 
this way, and the comments of the teacher will be better under- 
stood than her pencil marks upon the pupils' papers." 



116 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Impromptu work, followed by blackboard criticism of "typ- 
ical errors," does not constitute a method of procedure likely to 
result in developing individuality of thought and expression, 
independence and self-confidence in giving expression to one's 
own ideas, and pride in the finished product of one's efforts. 
Predominance of attention to form, as has been abundantly dem- 
onstrated b}' schools that have tried it — and this is almost every- 
where the prevailing method of teaching composition, it must 
be admitted — never produces even tolerably satisfactory formal 
results. This failure was evident in practically all the composi- 
tion seen in the Portland schools, — the form was as poor as the 
content. Composition, that ought to be and might well be one 
of the most interesting and valuable studies of the elementary 
schools, serving almost as no other subject can to develop rich 
individuality, is evidently carried on as a routine class exer- 
cise; one teacher's practice of "occasionally looking at individual 
papers when pupils get careless," is probably not confined to 
that one teacher. Composition, that may be inspiration and op- 
portunity, is all too evidently drudgery for pupils and teachers. 

Penmanship Poor and Careless 

No special exercises in penmanship were observed, but the 
penmanship in the regular written exercises, compositions, and 
examinations, was carefully noted. It was prevailingly poor, 
careless, and untidy. Only an occasional paper or note book, 
certainly not more than one in ten, was seen that could be called 
fairly good from the standpoint of the penmanship, and rarely 
one that could be called excellent. 

Work in Geography Abstract and Bookish 

With the exception of two exercises in the Arleta school, 
which seemed fairly real and involved considerable thought on 
the part of teachers and pupils, all the work observed in geog- 
raphy was abstract and bookish in the extreme. The assign- 
ments for study and the questions, almost without exception, 
called for unreasoning memorization of the statements of the 
book. No connection was made or suggested between the book 
statements and the pupils' own immediate observations of geo- 
graphic phenomena; not the slightest stimulus was given to ob- 
serve, to think about, and to interpret the geographic phenomena 
in which Portland and vicinity surpassingly abounds; even an 
exercise in "home" geography was conducted entirely from the 
book, the teacher reading therefrom such questions as these: 
"Where is the air?" "What is moving air called?" "What 
heats the air?" "What time of day is warmest?" 

Such exercises threw about the whole subject, as they could 
not fail to do, an atmosphere of unreality. It is true, pupils 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 117 

answered the teachers' hollow word-questions fairly well, — 
answered them with memorized hollow word-statements. And 
it is more than probable that such exercises are most effective, 
and most conserving of time and effort, in the preparation for 
passing the formal term examinations in this subject, which, as 
has already been pointed out, are so potent in shaping the work 
of the schools. The following is a fair sample of the type of 
final term examinations in geography. This examination was 
given in January, 1913, and covered the work of the Fourth A, 
that is, the very beginnings of systematic work in geography, — 
a period in the course which should be devoted to the first- 
hand observation and study of geographic phenomena, within the 
comprehension of the pupil, in order that he may have some real 
concepts with which to interpret geographical language referring 
to phenomena beyond the range of his experience: 

Geography Examination Test 
January, 1913. 

part 19. 

I. (a) What is a continent? Ocean? Isthmus? 

(b) Name the continents and the grand divisions of the two 
large continents. 
II. (a) To what race do you belong? The Chinese? 
(b) Where is the home of each of these races? 

part 20. 
I. (a) What is a strait or channel? Write the name of one 
strait and tell what it connects. 

(b) What causes day and night? 

(c) What is a zone? Name the zones in order, beginning at 

the north. 
II. (a) Name the oceans surrounding North America. 

(b) What is an island? Name four islands off the coast of 
North America. 

part 21. 
I. (a) Where is the Great Central Plain of North America? 
(b) What mountains border it on the east? West? What 
bay and ocean north of it? What gulf south? 
II. (a) In what country do we live? 

(b) What ocean is east of it? West? What country and 
gulf south? What country north? 

How could a child of nine or ten answer such questions as 
the above, except from memorized statements,— statements that 
could be little more than words to him? 

History Instruction Dry and Dull 

The few exercises observed in history bore very much the 
same general characteristics as those in geography. In this 



118 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

subject, too, the best exercise seen was one in the Arleta school. 
Here several texts were in use; pupils were learning to study the 
same topic, as presented in different books; the teachers' ques- 
tions called for some real thought, and there was evident a very 
moderate amount of real interest in the subject. The other ex- 
ercises observed were dull and bookish in the extreme; there was 
not the slightest evidence of active and positive interest in the 
subject; the one purpose seemed to be to acquire, by sheer force 
of memory, the statements of the assigned text, — a text that could 
be most advantageously displaced by any one of a half-dozen 
texts that might be named. 

Arithmetic and Technical Grammar Better Taught Than Other 

Subjects 

Arithmetic and technical grammar are evidently considered 
and treated by the central authorities as the backbone of the ele- 
mentary school course; naturally these subjects receive cor- 
responding attention from the teachers. Assuming that these 
subjects as prescribed must be taught — we have already criti- 
cised such prescriptions — the teaching of these subjects seemed, 
on the whole, to be the best teaching observed. It is true that 
much of the technical grammar had little meaning for most of 
the children, and could not be expected to inspire any real in- 
terest in itself, but several teachers — indeed most of those ob- 
served in this subject — were making commendable, and, in a 
few cases, quite skillful efforts to bring the subject within their 
pupils' understanding. The arithmetic, too, was on problems 
few would ever have to solve, while quick, simple mental cal- 
culation, where tested, was quite poor. 

Criticisms From a Practical Standpoint 

The foregoing criticisms of the work of the grammar grades 
as observed in the several "regular" subjects are not made from 
the standpoint of a highly desirable but unattainable ideal, but 
are made entirely from the standpoint of the present actual ac- 
complishment of the best public schools. From this practical 
standpoint, our statement of the shortcomings of the work ob- 
served in the Portland schools — severe as it may possibly appear 
to some — is conservative, and more than justified by the facts. 

6. DEADENING EFFECT OF THE SYSTEM. 

The System Relieves Teachers of Educational Responsibility 

The influence of the system, rigidly centralized, mechanical 
and mechanically administered, as already shown in some de- 
tail, is quite manifest in all the class-room work of the grammar 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 119 

grades — in the attitude of principals, teachers and pupils. In 
these grades everywhere there is a noticeable absence of any 
feeling of educational responsibility. Teachers are convinced 
that many of their efforts are futile, that much that they are 
attempting is of little or no value to their pupils; but what can 
they do about it? They have no responsibility, no right, to de- 
part from the rigidly uniform prescriptions of the course of 
study, reinforced by inspection from the central office, and by 
the important term examinations. Indeed, there is probably 
nothing tangible or definite to hinder a teacher from doing some- 
thing more than the prescribed work, and possibly doing that 
something more in an original way; but no encouragement from 
the higher authorities could anywhere be found for attempting 
anything beyond the strict requirements. In fact, considering 
the extent and nature of these requirements, their fulfullment 
according to the letter of the law is probably a sufficient tax 
on most teachers and pupils. 

Work of Teachers and Pupils in the Grammar Grades Passive, 
Routine, Clerical 

In complete harmony with this lack of all feeling of active 
and intelligent responsibility for the best education of the chil- 
dren placed in their charge, was, as would be almost inevita- 
ble, an equally complete lack of originality, even in the details 
of class-room procedure. Passive, routine, clerical, are the 
terms that most fittingly describe the attitude of principals and 
grammar-grade teachers toward their work. And the attitude 
of the pupils is inevitably the same. Except in one exercise, in 
all my visits to grammar-grade rooms, I heard not a single ques- 
tion asked by a pupil, not a single remark or comment made to 
indicate that the pupil had any really vital interest in the subject 
matter of the exercise; on not a single occasion was there in- 
terested disagreement and active discussion over any point to 
show that the pupils were thinking independently. The single 
exception, to which reference is made, occurred in an exercise 
in physiology, in which several alert boys cited numerous cases 
within their knowledge — and with no little degree of success — 
to refute the teacher's contention, unsupported by facts, that the 
use of tobacco shortens the life of the user. 

The attitude of the teacher as she teaches, of the pupil as 
he learns, is unquestionably of far more educational importance 
than is the subject with which they deal; when passive, neither 
teachers nor pupils are putting themselves into their work. Any 
system that compels, encourages, or permits passivity to become 
the prevailing attitude in the schools, at once deprives itself 
of the best powers of teachers and limits the education of pupils 
to the training of their lower faculties. That the Portland sys- 
tem is chiefly responsible for this condition in the grammar 
schools, there can be no serious doubt. 



120 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Of course, Portland grammar teachers are not universally 
passive by nature, although the system under which they work 
unquestionably tends to select and retain teachers of this type, 
rather than those of professional originality and natural ag- 
gressiveness. In private conversation, the majority of a con- 
siderable number of teachers with whom school interests were 
discussed at some length, gave evidence of alertness, independ- 
ence, and originality, of which there was little or no trace in 
their class-room exercises. 

Deadening Effect of the System on Principals 

The system bears even more heavily upon principals than 
upon teachers. It virtually permits little, it fails utterly to en- 
courage, much less does it require, the assumption of real ed- 
ucational responsibility, the exercise of professional initiative 
and originality by principals. Both in letter and in spirit the 
functions imposed upon principals by the system are routine 
and clerical. In the published "Rules and Regulations" of the 
school district, eight pages are devoted to defining the duties 
and responsibilities of principals. The very first duty here im- 
posed upon principals, and the spirit in which it is imposed, as 
indicated by the penalty for failure to comply, is typical of the 
character of their prescribed duties and responsibilities as a 
whole. That first duty and the penalty for its neglect, read 
(Rules, pp. 52-53) as follows: 

"Principals shall personally see that at 8:30 A. M. the school 
buildings are open and the assistants have registered their at- 
tendance. 

"Any principal who fails to comply with the first require- 
ment of this rule shall be fined two dollars for each such failure." 

Other duties assigned are to report neglect of janitors, pro- 
vide for supervision of school premises, report pupil attendance 
to Superintendent of Schools, hold fire drills as prescribed by 
the Board, report to the School Clerk each month the quantity 
and condition of school property, enter any alteration and 
amendment in the rules in each copy of the rules in the prin- 
cipal's building, see that the flag is raised over the building and 
removed as prescribed, that assembly halls are used only as di- 
rected by the Board, and to be at the building in cold weather 
one hour before pupils. 

The only duties imposed upon principals, which obviously 
pertain directly to the instruction in their schools, are the two 
following: 

"All supervising principals are required to teach at least 
one period each day." (Rules, p. 60.) 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 121 



"All principals shall make themselves familiar with the work 
of the grades under their supervision, and shall co-operate with 
the city superintendent to see that such work is faithfully ex- 
ecuted." (Rules, p. 53.) 

Teaching a certain class one period per day — according to 
the hard and fast prescriptions of the course of study — and co- 
operating with the city superintendent to see that other teach- 
ers execute their work as prescribed, constitute the full extent 
of educational responsibility imposed upon elementary school 
principals; and, with two exceptions, none of the principals 
whose schools were studied were actually exceeding the letter of 
this clerical responsibility imposed upon them. 

One other duty imposed by the Rules and Regulations might, 
under radically different conditions, be important educationally. 
The duty referred to is defined as follows: 

"It shall be the duty of principals to hold, each week, at 
least one general meeting of all the teachers in their respective 
buildings, for the purpose of consultation on subjects pertaining 
to school work." (Rules, p. 53.) 

Obedience to this requirement is insured by a fine of one 
dollar for every failure! 

All principals with whom conference was held were com- 
plying with the letter of this rule; with one, or possibly two 
exceptions, their compliance was merely formal. At all events, 
with the one, or possibly two exceptions noted, no principal was 
holding meetings of any educational significance. The time of 
these meetings, which are usually brief, is devoted to notices, 
rules and directions, and matter of a similar routine character, 
most of which might be handled much more effectively with the 
use of a mimeograph. 

One principal, who has clear and sound ideas on the real 
functions of a supervising principal, and who is fully conscious 
that he is not fulfilling those functions under the Portland sys- 
tem, related that years ago he tried to hold professional meet- 
ings with his teachers, but gave it up, — because his teachers were 
not fitted for such work! The best of them, those who were 
capable of taking leading parts in such meetings, were reluctant 
to express themselves, lest their advanced views should be re- 
ported throughout the city and get them into trouble. They 
feared to advocate anything out of the routine, for that would 
mean more work, and more work — with its attendant accom- 
plishment — in one part of the system, would threaten other parts 
of the system with a like affliction! 

There is one, and only one, other duty, not yet referred to, 
which is imposed on elementary school principals. That duty is 
prescribed only by implication in the following rule, which de- 
fines the penalty for failure: 



122 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

"Any principal, who for any cause whatever, fails to attend 
any meeting called by the city superintendent of schools for 
consultation, shall forfeit the sum of one dollar for every such 
failure; and for tardiness at any such meeting one-half dollar 
shall be forfeited." (Rules, p. 59.) 

The influence of the system, replete with prescriptions of 
mechanical, routine, and clerical service, but neither requiring 
nor encouraging the exercise of any professional initiative or 
judgment, is plainly manifest in the character and attitude of the 
principals that the system selects and retains. Extended con- 
ferences with the principals of all the elementary schools vis- 
ited revealed among this number three quite distinctly marked 
types, so far as their present attitude toward professional work 
is concerned. There are, first, those who are professionally 
dead, who could be made to disclose no evidence of ever hav- 
ing been professionally alive, and who, of course, do not know 
that they are dead; second, there are those who were once pro- 
fessionally alive, who cherish rather fond memories of those 
golden days, realize that they are now dead, but are not suf- 
ficiently dissatisfied with their present inertia, or lack the 
strength, to resume a self-respecting, active professional exist- 
ence; and finally there are those who are professionally very 
much alive, are, of course, conscious of their life, and quite as 
keenly conscious of the professional death all about them. Only 
one of the principals interviewed seems to belong wholly to this 
last type. 

Work in Primary Rooms Presents Marked Contrast to That in 
Grammar Rooms 

What has been said regarding the prevailing attitude of 
grammar-grade teachers does not apply to the score of primary 
teachers whose work was inspected at some length. The work of 
these teachers, as a whole, was characterized by activity, orig- 
inality, independence, initiative, interest, and enthusiasm. Their 
pupils responded in kind. Why the marked contrast in this most 
important respect between the primary and the grammar grades? 
While, naturally, the answer to this question is not susceptible 
of mathematical demonstration, it seems more than probable that 
the contrast is due largely to the inequality with which the sys- 
tem bears upon the primary and grammar departments. Much 
educational responsibility is placed upon primary teachers; the 
primary work is much less definitely prescribed than is that of 
the grammar grades; and, most important of all, there are no 
examinations imposed from without to determine the fitness of 
pupils to advance. Primary teachers are evidently expected to 
use intelligent judgment and to exercise no little independence, 
both in respect to subject matter and method. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 123 

7. OTHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEEDS. 
The Dearth of Suitable Educational Materials 

Without going into much detail, record must here be made 
of the dearth of suitable educational material throughout all the 
schools visited. Not a single one of the hundred elemental'}' 
school rooms visited was even fairly well supplied with what 
must be regarded as the barest essentials necessary for good 
work. In most subjects there is lack of a sufficient number of 
suitable regular texts; and a lamentable lack of supplementary 
books, geographical, historical, and literary readers. 

This lack of supplementary readers is perhaps most keenly 
felt in the lower primary grades. Classes are limited to the two 
regular texts, and such miscellaneous single books as can be se- 
cured, by giving pay entertainments, or by borrowing from the 
public library. There should be available for every primary room 
at least ten sets of suitable supplementary readers. By a system 
of exchange the same sets might be made to do service in several 
class-rooms within the year. Every primary class in reading 
that was inspected was actually suffering for more books; the 
pupils had learned how to read; their great need was for read- 
ing material, and an abundance of it. The same lack extends 
up into the other grades. 

Apparatus, pictures, maps, so necessary in the most effective 
teaching of geography, history and literature, are conspicuous 
by their absence. Suitable and uniform paper for written work 
seems to be uniformly lacking. Some is furnished, but the quan- 
tity is far too small. In the primary grades, slates, which have 
been long since abolished beyond recall in most educationally 
progressive cities, are here still largely taking the place of paper. 

Books and Other Necessary Material Should be Supplied by the 

School District 

It can hardly be expected that sufficient and suitable books 
and other equally necessary educational material will be supplied 
to every school-room until the school department assumes the 
expense and the responsibility of these indispensable aids to 
school-room work. Several whole states and many cities of the 
East have found, by nearly a generation of experience, that it is 
not only educationally advantageous, but economical as well, for 
the city or school district to furnish everything necessary for 
the maintenance of schools. In the interest both of educational 
efficiency and of economj', this course is recommended for 
Portland. 

If it should seem impracticable to meet at once the initial 
cost of supplying all necessary books and material in sufficient 
quantity, the policy might well be introduced gradually. For 



124 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

example, a good beginning might be made by supplying, in the 
elementary schools, everything except the regular text-books; 
this would probably cost about $2 per pupil per year, of which 
about one-half would be necessary for stationery and other 
quickly consumed supplies, while the other half should be ex- 
pended on supplementary books, and other relatively perma- 
nent material. By spending this amount for three or four years, 
a good supply of supplementary books, and other relatively per- 
manent materials, would be accumulated; then, without much 
increasing the annual costs, the district might undertake to sup- 
ply the regular texts in the elementary schools. All books would, 
of course, be loaned, not given, to pupils. When the system of 
furnishing books and supplies by the district had been once 
completely established, it could be well maintained at an annual 
expenditure not exceeding $2 per pupil in the elementary schools. 
There can be no reasonable doubt that this comparatively 
small addition to the present cost per pupil, amounting to an in- 
crease of less than five per cent over the present rate, would 
more than justify itself in the increase of efficiency throughout 
the elementary schools. It should also be pointed out that, to a 
considerable extent, this increase would be apparent, rather than 
real. Such books and materials as are now used are paid for by 
the people of the school district, and by those who have children 
in the schools; when the books and materials are furnished by 
the school district, they are paid for by the people of the dis- 
trict, through taxation. Purchasing in large quantities, the 
school board can buy books at about twenty per cent less, and 
other supplies at a much larger reduction, than can individuals 
purchasing in very small quantities. Hence the actual cost of 
books and supplies that must be met from resources of people of 
the district, when these are purchased in quantity by the dis- 
trict, will not be, on the average, more than two-thirds to three- 
fourths as much as when purchased by individuals, as at present. 

Classes in the Elementary Schools of Commendable Size. 

The school authorities deserve much credit for keeping up 
with the very rapid increase in school population, which has been 
taking place during the last decade, with an equally rapid ex- 
tension of the school plant and increase in the number of classes, 
with the result that all pupils are afforded a full day's school- 
ing, and that in classes of very favorable size, in comparison with 
those of most large, rapidly growing cities. While many such 
cities are struggling to give thousands of pupils a full school day, 
and to reduce the size of elementary classes to forty-four, forty- 
two, or forty pupils, as a practical ideal for the immediate future, 
Portland schools are already enjoying the great advantage of an 
average class membership of scarcely thirty-six. While an aver- 
age membership of thirty is preferable to one of thirty-six, the 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 125 

authorities will do well, in the next few years, not to let classes 
increase over the present size. 

Discipline 

In every elementary school building and class-room visited 
the pupils seemed to be under the complete control of principals 
and teachers. Not a single case of disobdience or of disturbing 
conduct was observed; on the contrary, the speech and attitude 
of pupils was universally respectful and responsive to the de- 
sires of teachers and principals. 

Provisions for Defectives 

The only provision made for elementary instruction in the 
Portland schools and not already referred to in the preceding 
pages of this section is the wholly inadequate provision for de- 
fectives. This provision of the svstem is discussed elsewhere, in 
Chapter XIV. 

8. THE CURRICULA OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Extent and Character of Provisions for Secondary Education. 

The rapidly growing demand for secondary education, quite 
general throughout the country, is manifested in Portland by 
the remarkable increase in secondary school enrollment during 
the last four years. Within this short period the number of sec- 
ondary pupils enrolled has increased from 1793 to 3544, an in- 
crease of 92 per cent; during the same period the increase in 
elementary school pupils, from 20,420 to 26,973, showed a growth 
of only 32 per cent. 

Causes of Increase in Secondary School Enrollment 

The principal causes of this extraordinary growth ot sec- 
ondary pupils appear to be the three following: First, the grow- 
ing disposition to prolong education beyond the elementary 
grades; second, the increased attractiveness and the greater ac- 
cessibility of regular high school opportunities that have been 
brought about within five years by the building of the Jefferson 
and new Lincoln schools; and, finally, the provision of rad- 
ically different types of secondary education in the School of 
Trades, and the extension of the more immediately practical 
courses — the commercial, manual training, domestic science and 
domestic art courses — in the high schools. Just how much of 
the increase in secondary pupils in excess of the general increase 
in school population is due to each of these causes, it is ob- 
viously impossible to determine accurately. That the new and 



126 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

enlarged trade and practical courses are chiefly responsible for 
more than one-half the increase of nearly 1200 pupils in excess 
of the average increase in the total school enrollment would seem 
to be a conservative estimate, when we consider that during the 
period in question the enrollment in the School of Trades has 
grown from nothing to 380, in the commercial courses from 99 
to 431, in the domestic science and art courses from 110 to 234, 
and in the manual training from 58 to 137. This growth and the 
apparent causes of it are most significant, and suggest still 
further extensions and improvements in the secondary program, 
as will be pointed out more fully by Superintendent Francis in 
Chapter X. 

Present Provisions for Secondary Education 

At the present time the provisions for secondary education 
in the district are found in three high schools, and in the School 
of Trades. Pupils, both boys and girls, are admitted to all these 
schools, and on the same scholastic condition, viz., completion 
of the elementary course of study or its equivalent. 

Character of Instruction 

The time that could be devoted to a study of the actual class- 
room work in the high schools, and its results, was too limited 
to warrant any confident generalizations concerning its character 
as a whole. Five exercises by different teachers were witnessed 
in English, four in commercial subjects, two in history, and one 
each in psychology, physiography, drawing, and German; these 
exercises were about evenly divided in number among the three 
schools. From the conduct of these exercises, and from private 
conversations with the teachers conducting them, we feel fully 
justified in saying that in the Portland high schools there are 
teachers equal to the best that we have ever seen in any sec- 
ondary school — and there are also teachers as poor as the poor- 
est that we have ever seen anywhere. Examples of such ex- 
tremes of surpassing excellence and of lamentable inefficiency 
we have never before met with in one and the same school; and 
in some cases the representatives of inefficiency were drawing 
considerably larger salaries than were the representatives of 
excellence. The conditions as they relate to salaries have been 
considered at some length in Chapter V. 

A careful study of the curriculum of the high schools, and 
long conferences with the three principals and with eight de- 
partment heads, regarding its character, administration, and 
adaptation to the needs of the youth and the community, form 
the chief immediate basis of the characterizations and criticisms 
that follow. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 



127 




sasnnoo 



128 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



High School Courses of Study 

Table 15, on the preceding page, shows in a single view the 
scope, character, and arrangement of the complete high school 
curriculum for Portland. As outlined in the published high 
school courses of study, there are ten distinct "courses" of 
study, among which a pupil beginning high school work must 
choose, as follows: English, Latin, German, Scientific, College 
Preparatory, Teaching, Dressmaking, Domestic Science, Manual 
Training, and Commercial. The chief constituents of every one 
of these courses, with the possible exception of the Commercial, 
are found in the six subjects first indicated on the chart, that 
is, English, history, science, mathematics, Latin and German. 
Indeed, the five courses first named above are made up entirely 
of these six subjects, taken in varying proportions. The five 
remaining courses are made up of varying proportions of these 
same six subjects, with the addition to each course of the prac- 
tical subject, or subjects, as indicated on the chart, and which 
gives the name to the course. 



Principals and Teachers Employed in Teaching Subjects, Not in 
Educating Youth 

While the courses of studies for the high schools are more 
varied, and while they have undergone considerably more change 
and growth in the last half-dozen years than has the elementary 
course, the same characteristics that were pointed out and crit- 
icised at length in the elementary course are marked also in the 
high school courses. First to be noted is the rigid maintenance 
of the formal integrity of the prescribed courses. Instead of a 
living curriculum, easily adaptable by principals, heads of de- 
partments, and teachers, to the varying and changing needs of 
the youth and the community, there is just the reverse — a fixed 
curriculum, varied even in comparatively unimportant details 
with difficulty and the loss of much time; pupils and com- 
munity must make what they can of what is provided. The 
high schools are maintained, and principals and teachers are 
employed, to give instruction in the prescribed subjects to those 
pupils who meet the prescribed conditions; the system does not 
encourage or even permit, to any considerable extent, the con- 
centration of the thought and effort of principals and teachers 
primarily on the best education of the high school youth of the 
city. 

Of course, everyone concerned hopes — and doubtless some 
believe — that the best educational results are achieved under these 
conditions. So one may hope and perhaps believe that the best 
way to make a deaf child like a normal child is to give him for 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 129 

several years the same instruction in technical grammar to which 
the normal child is subjected. The fundamental fault with this 
attitude, wherever it manifests itself in the educational field, is 
that it fails to study and to attempt to meet definitely the ac- 
tual, concrete problems of education as they present themselves; 
it shirks the responsibility, perhaps because of the very real 
danger of failure, of undertaking the really difficult thing in 
teaching, — the most efficient education of an actual living in- 
dividual. It involves comparatively little responsibility to teach 
a subject well to those who are capable of learning it, and many 
teachers reach a high degree of excellence in this; it is quite 
another matter to teach a child or youth well. How many teach- 
ers are capable of this will not be revealed until school author- 
ities permit, encourage, and require this as the obviously primary 
function of all true teachers. 

An Official Step in the Wrong Direction 

That teachers may teach youth, rather than subjects, it is 
necessary that they be allowed time to study sympathetically the 
youth they are to teach, to know them, to appreciate their capaci- 
ties and interests, their strength and their weakness. A teacher 
who is occupied with class-room instruction every period in 
the day, every day in the week, meeting each period in the day 
a new group of faces, under the constraint of teaching each 
group a given portion of the prescribed curriculum, has far too 
little opportunity, and still less incentive, to know his pupils in- 
dividually, as he must know them, if he is really to educate each 
one intelligently and effectively. The recent order of the school 
authorities abolishing, for nearly all high school teachers, the 
all-too-few periods that had previously been free from set rec- 
itations, was a step in the wrong direction. There is no ques- 
tion but that the teachers in the high schools are today required 
to teach altogether too many periods per week. 



Uniformity of Curriculum for All High Schools 

That the maintenance of the uniformity of the curriculum, 
rather than the serving of the varying individual needs of youth, 
is made to loom large on the teacher's horizon, is evidenced in 
several ways, among which the following are of prime import- 
ance. In the first place, there is the same identical curriculum 
— outlined not quite so minutely, but with the same kind of for- 
mal and mechanical detail that characterizes the elementary 
curriculum — for all three high schools; the only officially sanc- 
tioned variation is found in the Washington and Lincoln schools, 
no manual training being given in the latter, and no commercial 
subjects in the former. Not only is there one single outline of 



13U SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

subjects to be taugbt in all the schools, but no deviation from 
this outline may be made in one school, to meet temporary needs, 
unless the same deviation is agreed upon by principals and in- 
terested heads of departments for all the schools, and formally 
approved by Superintendent and the Board of School Directors. 
Such, for example, is the only process of making so small a 
variation from the prescribed uniformity as the substitution for 
one of the least of the classics that must be read at a given 
point in the course in literature of another classic, equally good 
from the literary standpoint, and much better adapted to meet 
conditions that obtain at a given time in one school, but which 
may not obtain at all in the other schools. 

Of course, it may be maintained with some truth that the 
sum total of the characteristics and needs of the thousand pupils 
in one school is approximately the same as the sum total of the 
characteristics and needs of the thousand pupils in either of the 
other schools; hence, the conclusion may be drawn that the cur- 
riculum adequate to meet the needs in one school must be ade- 
quate to meet the needs in the other schools. Unfortunately, the 
trouble with the curriculum that grows out of such reasoning, 
and that is maintained in the spirit of such reasoning, is that 
in practice it never adequately serves the actual needs of pupils 
in any school. Such a curriculum is always rigid, dead, de- 
manding the service of pupils and teachers; while an adequate 
curriculum must be living, adaptable, easily varied in the service 
of teachers and pupils, that their work together may result in 
efficient education. 

Uniformity of Curriculum a Barrier to Progress 

The concentration of effort on the maintenance of a uni- 
form curriculum for all schools is a most effective barrier to 
progress in the adaptation of the curriculum to local needs; 
under these conditions the least progressive school, the least pro- 
gressive principal or department head, is the most influential in 
determining what all the schools shall d°- The progress of all 
is determined by the rate of the slowest. More than one illus- 
tration of this, touching some of the largest and most important 
courses, was discovered in the Portland high schools. On the 
other hand, let there be placed upon every principal, every de- 
partment head and every teacher, large responsibility for meet- 
ing progressively and as fully as possible the concrete and ever- 
changing problems that present themselves — not to others in 
other schools, but to them in their schools — and just the opposite 
results will inevitably follow; the most wisely progressive school, 
principal, department head, and teacher, will advance rapidly, 
and the slowest will be stimulated to follow. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 131 



Uniformity and Isolation of Subjects 

In full harmony with the uniformity of the curriculum as a 
whole, perhaps almost a necessary part of such uniformity, is 
not only the uniformity but the isolation of every distinct sub- 
ject of which the whole curriculum is composed. For example, 
there is a single, minutely defined course in English language 
and literature, which is identical, not only for all schools, but 
for all pupils. It matters not in what school a pupil is, or what 
course the pupil is pursuing, — whether the college preparatory, 
the manual training, the domestic science, the commercial, or 
the teaching course, — when that pupil studies English, he is given 
exactly the same instruction, both in subject matter and method, 
as every other pupil who studies English. And the same thing 
is true of every other subject. Is not English, English; chemis- 
try, chemistry; history, history; and mathematics, mathematics, 
no matter who studies these subjects, or for what purpose? In- 
deed, such seems to be the only assumption capable of justif}'- 
ing the uniformity and isolation of subjects that obtain in the 
Portland high schools. 

Pupils' "Courses" Lack Unity and Definiteness of Purpose 

One of the unfortunate results of this uniformity and isola- 
tion of subjects is that any "course," as the domestic science, 
commercial, or teaching course, that a pupil pursues, lacks unity 
of purpose; it is merely made up of a certain number of sub- 
jects uncorrelated with each other and unadapted to any specific 
purpose that the pupil's "course" ought to serve. This condi- 
tion is most obvious in the "practical" courses, which are rightly 
supposed to serve specific ends in the very near future. For 
illustration, it is a misnomer, if nothing more, to call a course 
a "teaching" course, seven-eighths of which consists of the 
same subjects, handled in the same way, that go to make up the 
major portion of all the nine other high school "courses." Such 
a course offers but a very inadequate preparation for teaching 
anywhere, much less in a city of the importance of Portland. 

Cost of the Examination System 

One other feature of the administration of the Portland 
high schools is worthy of serious consideration; that is the 
examination system to determine the promotion of pupils. This 
system in the high schools is practically the same as that in the 
grades, which has been described and commented upon at 
length, in the earlier part of this chapter. Four times each 
year, at the end and in the middle of each of the two terms, 
a whole week is given up to formal examinations, and another 
week is devoted to definite preparation for them. Twenty per 



132 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

cent of the school year devoted to examinations, and specific 
preparation for them, certainly seems like a large price to pay 
for information regarding pupils' knowledge and ability, which, 
in most cases, is already known by teachers, better than any 
examination can reveal. To furnish this superfluous and some- 
what unreliable information seems to be the main purpose for 
which these examinations are maintained. Undoubtedly pupils 
learn something, often much, in the course of preparing for ex- 
aminations, and in undergoing them; but the amount of time 
that can be profitably given to formal examinations must be 
limited. The Portland school authorities appreciated this fact 
in part, about seventeen years ago, when the monthly examina- 
tion system of that time was made to give way to the present 
plan of four examinations per year. A further appreciation o£ 
it is needed now. 



9. SUMMARY OF THE CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 

PRESENT SYSTEM OF ELEMENTARY AND 

SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

1. A rigidly prescribed, mechanical system of instruction, 
organization, and administration, poorly adapted both to the 
needs of the children and youth to be educated, and of the com- 
munity to be provided with efficiently trained service, is the 
most universally evident fact of the Portland schools. 

2. No one is wholly or primarily responsible for the system 
that dominates and mechanizes the thoughts and efforts of all 
connected with it, — school board, superintendent, assistant su- 
perintendents, principals, teachers, and pupils. 

3. The mechanical system manifests itself in the course of 



study: 



The elementary course of study is dead, vivisected 
mathematically into fifty-four separate prescrip- 
tions, most of which are composed of a given num- 
ber of pages from certain text-books. 

Regardless of age or need pupils are fitted to this dead 
curriculum, — there is no adaptation of the curricu- 
lum to the pupil. As a consequence, there are chil- 
dren of each year of age, from eleven to fifteen in- 
clusive, in every one of the nine elementary grades. 

There is abundant evidence that almost no thought was 
ever devoted to the working out and formulation of 
the elementary course of study. 

In content the elementary course of study presents the 
following characteristics: 

1) The prescriptions of subject matter are abso- 
lutely and mechanically uniform for all. 



CHAP. VIII. SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 133 

2) The prescribed work is overwhelmingly abstract 

and bookish. 

3) An excessive amount of time is given to abstract 

arithmetic and technical grammar. 

4) Composition receives inadequate attention. 

5) The study of history is deferred to a point that 

one-third of the pupils never reach. 

4. The mechanical system manifests itself in the scheme of 
promotional examinations: 

a. The scheme is mechanical. 

b. The anticipations of examinations dominate and dis- 

tort the work of teachers and pupils. 

c. The examinations are wasteful of time and effort. 

5. The mechanical system manifests itself in the spirit and 
method of instruction in the class-rooms: 

a. In the lowest grades, where the system bears less heav- 

ily, the work is generally good, much of it very 
good, some of it excellent. 

b. Work in the grammar grades is characterized by rou- 

tine, lack of method, absence of evidence of genuine 
interest. 

c. In the grammar grades, reading is perfunctory; com- 

position, very poor; penmanship, careless; geogra- 
raphy, abstract and bookish; history, dry and dull; 
arithmetic and technical grammar taught with con- 
siderable skill, but greatly over-emphasized, and the 
instruction not adapted to human needs. 

6. The influence of the mechanical system is manifested in 
the attitude of principals, teachers, and pupils in the grammar 
grades : 

a. It relieves teachers of educational responsibility. 

b. It encourages passive, routine, clerical work on the 

part of both teachers and pupils. 

c. Its effect on the principals is deadening; it neither 

requires nor encourages, it scarcely even permits, 
the assumption of any real educational responsibility 
by them. 

7. The absence of the mechanizing effects of the system is 
manifested in the activity, originality, independence, interest 
and enthusiasm which characterizes the work of the primary 
grades. 

8. There is a dearth of suitable and even necessary educa- 
tional material throughout the elementary grades. 

9. Classes in the elementary schools are of commendable size. 

10. The discipline in the elementary schools is excellent. 

11. Provisions for defectives are wholly inadequate. 



134 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

12. Provisions for secondary education are found in three 
high schools and in the School of Trades. 

13. In the last five years there has been a rapid growth of 
secondary pupils, out of all proportion to the increase in total 
school enrollment. 

14. There are some excellent and some grossly inefficient 
teachers in the high schools, some of the representativs of in- 
efficiency drawing larger salaries than the representatives of 
excellence. 

15. High school principals and teachers are engaged in 
teaching subjects, rather than in educating the youth of the city. 

1G. The uniformity of curriculum for all high schools is a 
distinct barrier to progress. 

17. Subjects are uniform and isolated. 

18. Pupils' courses lack unity and definiteness of purpose. 

19. The examination system costs twenty per cent of the 
school year, and its results are of little value. 



m 

l. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 135 



Chapter IX 

OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM ADAPTED TO 
LOCAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS. 

(Spaulding.) 

In Chapter VIII the character and scope of the educational 
program, at present being carried out in the school district was 
set forth in some detail. The defects and shortcomings of that 
program were dealt with especially there, and at length. We 
also tried to recognize at least its chief distinctive merits. The 
fact that the defects and shortcomings are more numerous than 
the merits recorded, and that to the discussion of the former far 
more space is devoted than to the latter, gives no warrant what- 
ever for the conclusion that, in the main, the local school sys- 
tem is positively bad and inefficient. Such is by no means the 
truth; the positive merits of the present system outweigh many 
times the recorded defects, which are mainly relative. 

1. POINT OF VIEW AND PURPOSE IN THIS STUDY. 

Lest this last statement may seem out of harmony with the 
content and spirit of the last section, and to guard against the 
drawing of unjustifiable conclusions from that section, a brief ex- 
planation here concerning the point of view and purpose of this 
part of our study may not be out of place. We have studied the 
present school program in the light of an ideal — not a visionary, 
but a wholly practicable ideal; we have studied what is being 
done in the light of something more and better that may be 
done. Were our standard and purpose totally different, were 
we setting forth the accomplishments of the present school sys- 
tem in comparison with a zero accomplishment, our findings 
would be very different. Under these conditions, even the 
features of the present system that we have criticised most se- 
verely would appear meritorious. A single extreme illustra- 
tion will suffice to make this clear: Unquestionably it is better 
to exercise the mind of a deaf youth on the dry husks of tech- 
nical grammar than to allow him to grow up wholly untutored; 
but it were far better still to exercise both the mind and hand 
of that youth in learning to do something useful for himself and 
for the community. 

We Are Facing the Future 

In the study which we have made of the Portland school 
system, it has not been our purpose at all to cast up and close 
the account, as it were, showing a final balance of merit or 



136 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

defect; such a showing, were it possible, is unimportant. Still 
less has it been our purpose even remotely to suggest either 
credit or censure, as a personal matter, for present conditions 
and achievements; such a bestowal of personal praise or blame 
were still less important. We are facing the future. How can 
the educational opportunities and needs of the community — 
those of the immediate future — be more adequately met than 
present provisions are capable of meeting them? This is the 
all-important question with which this study is concerned; this 
is the one great question that must command the full and loyal 
attention of all locally engaged in the educational service, of all 
citizens who are genuinely interested in the educational welfare 
and progress of the community; this is the question whose pro- 
gressive answer during the next five years may easily place 
Portland educationally in the very front rank of American cities. 
To aid in answering the above question is the purpose of 
this chapter. The preceding chapter was written solely in 
preparation for this one. That chapter, necessarily so full of 
the defects and shortcomings of the present system, as already 
explained, serves its preparatory purpose, in three ways: First, 
it absolutely precludes the otherwise possible illusion that the 
present school system is really doing — perhaps under somewhat 
different forms — substantially what the program to be outlined 
in this section demands; second, it helps to bring out more 
clearly by contrast, and so to focus attention upon the chief 
distinguishing features of this proposed program; and, finally, 
it is the necessary basis of appreciation of the program of the 
future, just as the present system in practice must be the basis 
of future developments. The program to be here outlined has 
necessarily been anticipated, to some extent. 

What Is the Educational Problem That Presents Itself to 
Portland? 

To go right to the heart of the matter, in the simplest possi- 
ble way, what is the immediately educational problem that pre- 
sents itself to this community? Simply this: Here are forty-three 
thousand children and youth from four to twenty years of age; 
not quite one-half of them are compelled by present law to 
attend school; three-fourths of the remainder are "entitled to 
school privileges"; all of them constitute the living, educable 
assets of the community. What shall be done for these forty-three 
thousand children and youth that their efficiency, their value 
to themselves and to the community, may be increased to the 
largest possible extent? That the community desires, not simply 
to meet the letter of the educational law of the state, but to 
make the most possible through education of the young people 
of the community, is assumed without question. How can this 
be done? This is the simple question whose repeated answer 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 137 

must determine the entire activity and process of the educational 
program, from the most comprehensive administrative measure 
to the least detail of class-room procedure. 

The First Step 

When we have resolved the problem thus into its simple, 
naked elements, it is plain to see that the first step in its solu- 
tion is always an understanding of the material — the boys and 
girls — that we propose to improve through education. Any group 
of forty-three thousand children and youth presents an untold 
wealth of growing, budding, human interests and capacities of 
richest variety. How much more the forty-three thousand chil- 
dren and youth of Portland, of many nationalities, drawn — se- 
lected, in a sense — from every state in the Union and from nearly 
every country in the world presents such wealth! An intelligent 
process of education applied to these many thousand boys and 
girls means nothing more nor less than the recognition, develop- 
ment, and training to highest usefulness of each of the forty-three 
thousand distinct and different groups of interests and capacities 
that we call individuality. We must study these forty-three 
thousand boys and girls sympathetically, appreciatively — not as a 
mass, but individually — if we would adapt our educational efforts 
intelligently to the development of the best that is in each one of 
them. 

An Impossible Undertaking 

But is not this a prodigious undertaking, — to know intimately, 
as is necessary, forty-three thousand boys and girls, whose 
personnel is changing by several thousands every year? How is 
it possible for one to compass such a task? It is not possible; 
it is utterly impossible; one ought never to undertake it; one 
ought never to assume to prescribe the content and character 
of the educational process to be applied to each of forty-three 
thousand young people. There are, in the system, approximately 
nine hundred teachers, principals and supervisors; theirs should 
be the responsibility of knowing somewhat intimately every 
individual in this constantly changing army of children and 
youth; theirs should be the responsibility, under wise guidance 
and leadership, of adapting the educational process, both in con- 
tent and method, to individual needs. For them, this task is 
difficult, to be sure, but not impossible. 

Large Numbers No Excuse for Machine Methods 

The large number of pupils involved in this, or in any other, 
school system, constitute no valid excuse whatever for mass 
treatment and machine methods; such treatment and methods 
simply reveal the fact that some one, or some few individuals, 



13S SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

are attempting that which, in the very nature of conditions, 
they are utterly incompetent to do wisely, viz., to prescribe the 
educational treatment of thousands of children With whom they 
can have no acquaintance. Large numbers of children to be 
educated demand correspondingly large numbers of teachers 
for the task. Only let each teacher bear the responsibility and 
exercise the intelligence worthy of a real teacher, and the 
individuality of the child who is one in a system of one hundred 
thousand pupils may be as fully respected and as adequately 
treated as though he were one in a system of one hundred pupils. 
The progressive withdrawal from teachers and principals, as 
their numbers increase, of opportunity and responsibility for 
the exercise of worthy educational intelligence, and the corre- 
sponding increased assumption of responsibility by central 
authority, as the knowledge necessary for the wise exercise of 
it decreases, is indeed a prevalent, but none the less a mistaken 
practice, without justification or merit. 

Character of the Program to Be Projected 

What has just been said must suggest, both positively and 
negatively, the character of the educational program here to be 
outlined. Obviously this program cannot undertake to deal in 
detail with the educational needs of individuals, nor to prescribe 
the content and character of the educational processes best 
adapted to those needs; this would not be desirable, were it 
practicable, for these are matters to be worked out, day by day, 
and every day as long as their service lasts, by the nine hundred 
permanent teachers, principals, supervisors and superintendents 
of the system. What this program can do safely and profitably, 
is to project, in broad outlines, comprehensive plans of procedure 
adequate to the problem before us, and to point the way to the 
working out of those plans in detail. 

In projecting these plans, we begin, not with the course of 
study nor with the methods of its administration, but with the 
boys and girls to be educated; for it is their needs, their indi- 
vidual needs, that must everywhere and always determine the 
course of study, its administration, and every phase of the or- 
ganization and conduct of the schools. This priority of con- 
sideration cannot be overemphasized; for not only is it demanded 
by the very nature of the problem with which we are dealing, 
but it is contrary to present prevailing practice, not alone in 
Portland, but to a large extent, it must be confessed, in many 
other cities. The order of procedure here in attacking the prob- 
lem of education as a whole, may well serve as an example to 
every teacher, principal, and supervisor in working out this 
problem, even in its minutest details, for the first safe step is 
universally and invariably the discovery of the individual needs 
of the children or youth who are to be taught. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 139 

2. SEVEN FACTORS DETERMINING THE GROUPING OF 
CHILDREN 

Due regard for individual needs does not demand that in- 
struction be individual to any large extent, in the sense that 
pupils be taught alone; it does demand that pupils whose indi- 
vidual needs are sufficiently similar be grouped into schools 
and classes; that pupils of very diverse needs be not taught 
together, for their instruction should be radically different, 
either in content or in method, or in both. 

The principal factors which will determine the advantageous 
grouping of boys and girls for educational purposes are the 
following: 

1. Maturity, most readily, but only roughly, indicated by age. 

2. Knowledge, and ability to learn and to do. 

3. Probable time to be devoted to schooling, due to eco- 
nomic condition of family, personal capacity, aptitude, and in- 
clination. 

4. Natural capacity and interest. 

5. Command of the English language. 

6. Marked defects, abnormalities and subnormalities, phys- 
ical and mental. 

7. Sex. 

Some of the above characteristics and conditions overlap, 
more or less, yet each one is sufficiently distinct to serve as 
a valuable practical guide in actually determining the placement 
of any child or youth. Such actual placement will be deter- 
mined as the resultant of giving to each of these factors its 
due weight. The relative importance of each factor may vary, 
under different conditions, from zero to a degree outweighing 
all others combined. Hence, it is obvious that the suitable group- 
ing of children for educational purposes is no routine or 
mechanical matter; the placement of every single child requires 
study, knowledge, thought, insight, and judgment of a high 
order. Rut, really, is not every child worthy of this much 
consideration, even though we are dealing with them by the 
tens of thousands? It were certainly an unworthy parent who 
did not think so most emphatically concerning, his own child. 
A brief consideration of each of the above factors in turn, 
with some reference to their application to the local problem, 
will help us to appreciate their importance, and to see something 
of the result of their application to the suitable grouping of the 
children and youth of Portland. 

3. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AGE, AND OVERAGE. 

At the present time, the question of maturity, as represented 
by age, seems to be raised just once during every pupil's school 



140 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

career — that is, on admission to the school system. If the ap- 
plicant for admission is six years of age and under twenty-one, 
he is admitted to school privileges; if his age falls outside these 
limits, he is denied school privileges, except that in case he is 
over twenty-one he may be given instruction on the payment 
of a fee. Maturity, as indicated by age, appears to have at 
present no influence whatever in determining the grouping and 
classification of pupils who are admitted to the system, or the 
content and method of their instruction, except that candidates 
for admission to the School of Trades must be at least fourteen 
years of age. 

Children Under Six Educable 

Children under six years are now denied all school privi- 
leges in the district. In the school district there are over five 
thousand children between four and six years of age. That 
the education of children can be profitably begun at this age 
has been demonstrated for years in the kindergartens and sub- 
primary rooms of hundreds of school systems. 

With How Wide An Age-Range May Children Be Advantageously 
Instructed Together? 

In June, 1913, there were in the first six grades of the 
Portland schools, 17,606 children; these children ranged in age 
from six to nineteen years, in the preceding February, when the 
ages were taken. Engaged on work that is supposed normally 
to occupy children for about six years — from six to twelve 
years of age — were children and youth of an extreme age-range 
of fourteen years. The oldest children were by no means all 
in the higher of these grades; the smallest age-range in any 
grade was eleven years, in the fifth and sixth grades, while the 
four lower grades contained pupils differing by twelve, thirteen, 
and fourteen years in age. It is possibly true that no single class- 
room contained pupils of quite the extreme age-range here in- 
dicated; it is probably true that the pupils of comparatively few 
rooms represented an age-range exceeding six or seven years; it 
must be also true that an age-range of five years, or more, is com- 
mon, beyond the first grade, as no measures are taken to segre- 
gate pupils on account of age.* 

Assuming that the subject matter of instruction is to be sub- 
stantially the same for all, and that all have already approxi- 
mately the same knowledge of that subject matter, within what 
range of age may children be advantageously grouped together 
into classes? It is impossible to give an answer to this question 



* Careful statistical studies of age and grade distribution, 
made by Mr. Tanner for the schools studied by Superintendent 
Spaulding show an age range of four to six years for the different 
grades. — E. P. C. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 141 



that would be universally applicable, as age is only an approxi- 
mate index of maturity and of the possession of characteristics 
that normally accompany different degrees of maturity. On 
the whole, however, for children of six to fourteen years, a 
range of more than three years is not desirable; a range of four 
years begins to be too great; that is, were large numbers of 
such children grouped for advantageous instruction into classes 
according to age, it would probably be found that an age-range 
of four years proved too large more frequently than suitable. 
If we apply this age-range by grades to the enrolment in the 
first six grades in June, 1913, considering within the extreme 
four-year range all pupils of the four age-years having the 
largest number of representatives, we get results as shown in 
the following table: 

Table 16 

Age Distribution in Certain Grades 



Grade. 


Total 
enroll- 
ment. 


Four age-years 
most largely 
represented. 


™ 1 

Enrollment 
of these 
four age-years. 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

Totals 


3742 
3226 
2529 
2908 
2652 
2549 
17,606 


6- 7- 8- 9 

7- 8- 9-10 

8- 9-10-11 
8- 9-10-11 
9-10-11-12 

10-11-12-13 


3669 
3022 
2311 
2511 
2259 
2150 
15,921 



Grade. 



No. 
Younger. 



Per cent 
Younger. 



No. 
Older. 



Per cent 
Older. 



I 




120 

112 

12 

14 

21 

279 


4 
5 
1 

1 
1 
2 


73 
84 
106 
385 
379 
378 
1405 


2 


II 

Ill 

IV 

v 


3 

5 

15 

17 


VI 


18 


Totals 


9 



Eleven Per Cent of Elementary School Pupils Should Be 
Reclassified on Account of Age Alone 

According to the above analysis, eleven per cent of all pupils 
working in the first six grades were badly classified. In other 
words, assuming — contrary to the facts— that all other factors 
were satisfactorily observed in the classification of these pupils, 
due regard for the factor of age alone would lead to a different 
classification of eleven per cent of them. This analysis, let it be 
repeated, can be taken to give only approximate figures. That, 
for example, every one of the identical 379 pupils in grade V 
who were thirteen years of age and over — 57 of them were over 



142 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

fifteen — could be classified more advantageously, is not probable; 
it is quite certain that a considerable number of the 2259 pupils 
whose ages fell within the four age-years, chiefly of those 
twelve years of age, were too old for their classification with 
children of nine and ten; hence, the estimate of a total of 379 
as too old for their class grouping would probably prove, upon 
study, to be considerably under, rather than over the actual 
number. The same will hold true of the estimated numbers 
of excessively old children in each of the other grades; these 
estimates are undoubtedly, in every grade, well within the actual 
numbers needing better classification. The number of extreme- 
ly young children in each grade is so small — two per cent for 
the six grades, — and these few are doubtless so scattered through- 
out the city, that any separate classification of them would 
probably be impractical. 

Some of the Causes of Overage 

But age — or maturity as indicated by age— never actually 
occurs as the sole factor, never even as the sole important 
factor, to be considered in determining suitable groupings of 
pupils. Where a number of children of widely varying ages 
have approximately the same degree of knowledge of elementary 
school subjcts, there are sure to be important conditions or 
characteristics that have resulted in the acquisition of the same 
degree of knowledge at widely different ages. Some are ex- 
tremely backward, and in consequence, although they have had 
equal advantages, have been well taught and have exercised 
faithfully such powers as they possess, have advanced no farther, 
in terms of conventional school subjects, at ten, eleven, or 
twelve years of age, than have other children at seven or eight; 
others are backward to the point of marked deficiency, even 
imbecility, so that they can never equal in knowledge of school 
subjects, normal, well-taught children of six or seven; some 
over-age pupils, who are normalty endowed by nature, have 
had slight educational opportunities, others have been misunder- 
stood by their teachers, have not been "reached," and so have 
not applied themselves diligently; unfamiliarity with the English 
language, as the native tongue, is chiefly responsible for the 
over-age of others; sense-defects, mal-nutrition, over-work out- 
side of school, unfortunate home conditions, disease, alone or 
in combination, account for the over-age of still others. This 
by no means exhausts the list of principal causes, that, operating 
alone, or more frequently in combination, result in over-age; 
that is, in an age exceeding normal in the acquisition of a given 
degree of knowledge and ability respecting the usual school 
subjects. 

Over-age Pupils in the Portland Schools 

To give a better idea of the importance of the study of the 
overage pupils for Portland, we reproduce here a few tables, 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 143 

to show their number and distribution, The "Annual Report of 
the Public Schools" for the district each year contains a table, 
showing in detail the age and grade distribution of all pupils 
in the elementary schools of the district. This may be found 
in the report just referred to, and for that reason is not repro- 
duced here. Instead the following tabulation from a table sup- 
plied by the School Clerk, and compiled for the school year end- 
ing June 26, 1913, shows the condition even better than the table 
published in the school report: 1 

Table 17 
Over-Age Children in the Portland Schools 




* By regular age is meant the second-division, or nine-year 
pupil. 

The large number of over-age pupils in the schools early 
attracted the attention of the members of the Survey staff. To 
ascertain whether the distribution was general or not, statistical 
tables were compiled for comparison and study. An examina- 
tion of these showed a very general distribution of over-age 
pupils throughout all of the schools, the outlying schools not 
differing materially, in this respect, from the schools in the 
best residential districts. A tabulation of the age distribution 
of the pupils in the three high schools was also prepared, and 
this, together with a summary of the over-age conditions found 
in the eight schools studied in particular for the purposes of 
this and the preceding chapter, are given in Tables 18 and 19, 
which follow. 



1 Tables 17, 18, and 19 are here inserted in Superintendent 
Spaulding's report, to show more fully the over-age conditions 
he is discussing. — Director. 



144 



SCHOOL SURVEY RE POET 



Table 18 

Age and Grade Distribution for the Three High Schools 

(Calculated to June, 1913) 



Ages of pupils, 
in years. 

13 to 14 

14 to 15 

15 to 16 

16 to 17 

17 to 18 

18 to 19 

19 to 20 

20 to 21 

21 to 22 

22 to 23 

23 to 24 

24 to 25 

Totals 

Average age of class . . 

Number over 19 years 

(college age) . . . . . 

Per cent of whole No. 



First 


Second 


Third 


Fourth 


year. 


year. 


year. 


year. 


48 








204 


30 






362 


158 


23 


i 


275 


285 


132 


23 


158 


261 


255 


104 


57 


116 


170 


200 


20 


33 


62 


130 


13 


6 


19 


75 


3 


1 


6 


21 






1 


4 


"i 






"i 


1141 


890 


668 


559 


15 ys., 


16 ys., 


17 ys., 


20 ys., 


8 mos- 


llmos. 


10 mos- 


8 mos. 


36 


40 


.88 


231 


3.2 


4.5 


13.2 


41.3 



Totals. 



48 

234 

544 

715 

778 

543 

245 

113 

31 

5 



2 

3258 



395 
12.1 



In compiling Table 19 the Ladd School, which is next ad- 
jacent, has been substituted for the Shattuck, because of a slight 
mistake made in compiling the age distribution tables. Tables 
were first compiled for all schools, showing the age distribution, 
by years. To secure still greater accuracy, tables for the eight 
schools studied by Superintendent Spaulding were ordered com- 
piled again, to show distribution by half years instead of years. 
In doing so, through a misunderstanding, the Ladd School was 
compiled instead of the Shattuck, and data is not now at hand 
from which the mistake could be corrected. The substitution, 
though, is unimportant, as an examination of the distribution 
tables, by years, shows no material difference. 

The cross lines in the table separate the pupils into three 
groups. The first group covers the first three grades, where the 
examination system does not control promotions. The third 
group, as shown by Figure 8, page 150, contains the years where 
the enrollment drops rapidly, due largely to these over-age pupils 
now escaping the compulsory attendance law. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM U5 



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146 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Necessary Treatment and Study of Over-age Pupils 

All these children should be carefully studied to determine 
the cause, or causes, of their condition; then, as far as necessary, 
they should be organized into separate classes, into separate 
types of classes, so that they may receive the treatment that 
their condition requires. Such separate classification for the 
very large majority of these over-age children, for practically 
all of those who are two or more years over-age, will undoubtedly 
be found necessary, not only in the interest of the efficient in- 
struction of these pupils themselves, but quite as much in the 
interest of the normal children whose progress they retard 
when classified with them. For many of these children, separate 
classification need not be permanent. The causes of their over- 
ageness may be removed, or overcome; or when segregated and 
given instruction adapted in content and method to their peculiar 
needs, they will make such rapid progress that within a com- 
paratively short time they will be able to take up work in a 
regular grade that is normal for their age. 

Importance of Anticipating and Preventing the Development of 
Over-age Pupils 

Important as it is to study the present contingent of over- 
age children in the schools, and to institute measures of treat- 
ment adapted to their condition, it is still more important to 
anticipate over-ageness. To this end, all pupils, but especially 
those in the first three grades, should be studied carefully, and 
steps taken suitable to prevent the development in any of them 
of the condition of over-ageness. Taken thus early, the causes 
can be more effectually dealt with; a very brief segregation, even 
some special instruction in groups or individually, while over- 
ageness is in its incipiency, is often sufficient to insure normal 
progress thereafter. By such anticipatory measures, continuously 
applied throughout the grades, the present extent of over-ageness 
in the Portland schools may readily be cut in half, or better, 
within the next three years. 

4. THE OTHER FACTORS, DETERMINING GROUPING 

Knowledge and Ability Respecting School Subjects as a Standard 
of Classification 

Knowledge of the prescribed subjects of study, with some 
regard for different degrees of ability to acquire such knowledge, 
seems at present to be the sole standard by which is determined 
the classification and the instruction, both in content and 
method, of all pupils who have not completed the elementary 
curriculum, barring, perhaps, a comparatively negligible num- 



CRAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 147 

ber of pupils over seventeen years of age who may be specially 
admitted to the School of Trades. Thus it is that we find 
264 children, from eleven to eighteen years of age, working side 
by side with 112 children under eight years of age, because they 
are all alike in that they all measure up to third grade work. 
We also find 385 children, from twelve to eighteen years of 
age, working side by side with 291 children of seven and eight 
years, because they are all alike in that they all measure up 
to fourth grade work. Again, we find 656 boys and girls, 
from fourteen to nineteen years of age, who, through necessity 
or choice, will complete their schooling within a year and go 
out to take their places among the world's workers, sitting 
side by side with 887 other children of ten to twelve j'ears, 
most of whom, in preparation for their work of life, will con- 
tinue their schooling for yet five to seven years, at least, many 
of them for ten years and longer; those 656 boys and girls 
and these 887 other children are sitting side by side and 
receiving the same instruction, administered in the same way, 
and devoted chiefly to the abstractions of arithmetic and to the 
dry, and to them generally meaningless, intricacies of technical 
grammar, and solely because those 656 boys and girls and 
these 887 other children are alike in this, — they have all 
just completed parts thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty- 
four, thirty-five, and thirty-six of the abstract arithmetic and 
technical grammar prescribed for grade six, but they have 
not yet mastered the continuation of similar work as prescribed 
in parts thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, 
and forty-two, as prescribed for grade seven! 

And yet, knowledge of the conventional elementary sub- 
jects of instruction, especially reading, the use of language, 
orally and in writing, and of number, and the ability to ad- 
vance in such knowledge, is a most useful criterion by which 
to determine appropriate classification and instruction. In 
intelligent practice this standard of knowledge and ability will 
be the determining factor in the placement and instruction of a 
large majority of pupils under fourteen years of age, and of 
many above that age; but nowhere and never should this be the 
only factor considered. 

Influence of the Length of Instruction in Determining its 
Character 

Due consideration of the probable time that a given pupil 
will devote to schooling should have much influence in deter- 
mining what that pupil's schooling shall be. In the case of a 
normal child of six or seven years of age, just starting out on 
his school career, it is of little immediate importance to know 
whether that child will go to school for six or twelve years; 
his immediate treatment and instruction should not be appre- 



148 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

ciably affected by such knowledge. But in the case of children 
of thirteen or fourteen years, and older, it becomes of prime 
importance to know whether they are likely to continue in 
school for one, two, three, four, or more years. The proposi- 
tion, officially formulated and approved twenty years ago by 
high educational authorities, to the effect that instruction best 
suited to the preparation of pupils for admission to college 
was also best suited to prepare non-college-going pupils for their 
life work, 3 finds few thoughtful defenders to-day; carried into 
practice, its chief recommendations are its cheapness and facility 
of administration, and the relief that it affords educational 
officers and teachers from all responsibility of knowing and of 
meeting the individual needs of their pupils. 

All Public Instruction Should Be Designed to Fit the Recipient 

for Usefulness. 

All instruction — certainly all instruction at public expense — . 
whether of the elementary school, the high school, the college, 
the university, or any special school, should be dominated by 
the practical purpose of fitting the recipient of that instruction 
for useful service in the community. In the light of this proposi- 
tion, it would seem almost self-evident that the instruction 
given a person who is to enter service at the end of one year 
should be quite different from the year's instruction that was 
known to be only preliminary to several year's further tuition 
before actual, useful service is to be demanded of the recipient. 
Even when one proposes, after one year's preparatory schooling, 
to render service in the same general field that he would enter 
after several years' preparation, it seems hardly conceivable 
that the single year of schooling could advantageously be made 
identical with the first of a series of years suited to a broad 
and thorough preparation for usefulness of a high and relatively 
uncommon order; but when the type of service that can best 
be rendered after one year's preparation is quite different from 
that which might best be rendered after several years' prepara- 
tion — as is usually the case, — then by so much the more should 
that year's preparation differ from the first of a series of years' 
preparation. But if this form of a priori reasoning is not con- 
vincing, one may find in the hundreds of Portland boys and 
girls who annually complete their schooling with some of the 
elementary or lower high-school grades, no lack of concrete 
evidence of the inefficiency of the training for immediate 
service, of conventional grammar and high school courses that 
lead — that were designed to lead — eventually, if pursued long 
enough, to collegiate, technical and other professional university 



3 Beport of the Committee of Ten of the N. E. A. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 149 

courses, which finally prepare for superior grades of service 
the relatively few who can pursue them. 

Influence of Natural Capacity and Interests in Determining 
Appropriate Instruction 

Appreciative recognition of the natural individual capacity 
and interests of a child or youth — we refer now only to normal 
children and youth — is so obviously important in determining 
the instruction best suited to develop that capacity and those 
interests into the highest state of usefulness — using this word 
with broad significance — that this matter would need no em- 
phasis nor discussion here, were it not that it seems now to 
be entirely ignored throughout the school lives of more than 
half of all the pupils who enter the Portland schools, and 
accorded only late and quite inadequate influence in shaping the 
work of the remainder. Under the present system, what a 
pupil of that larger half likes, or what he dislikes, what he can 
do easily and well, or with difficulty and poorly, or not at all, 
is of no moment in shaping that pupil's instruction; what that 
instruction was to be, even to minute details, was prescribed for 
that pupil from part one to part fifty-four inclusive, — the same 
as for thousands of others — before he began his school career, 
yes, before he was born. Until that fifty-four times dissected 
body of prescribed knowledge is mastered even to the fifty- 
fourth part, no adaptation of instruction to individual capacity 
and interest may be made. Since more than half of all pupils 
who begin to travel along this educational pathway — straight 
and narrow — with its fifty-four milestones, never complete the 
journey, none of these ever reaches the point where he may turn 
off into divergent ways better suited to his needs. How many 
of the hundreds of youth who annually abandon this straight 
and narrow educational pathway, — beginning to drop off in 
large numbers from the thirty-sixth milestone, and continuing 
to fall out at every succeeding milestone, and between mile- 
stones, as is shown in Fig 8 (see next page) — do this because no 
recognition is accorded their individual capacities and interests, 
no one will ever know until the individuality and personality 
of pupils is given adequate study and consideration. When that 
is done, and ought to be done, and the remedies applied, there 
can be little doubt that a majority of that type who now complete 
their schooling about as soon as the law permits, will then find 
it advantageous to continue longer, and that all will be much 
better prepared for usefulness than now, whenever their school- 
ing ends. 

Overcoming the Handicap of the Non-English Speaking Child. 

The handicap of the child entering school, without being 
able to speak or to understand the language in which all in- 



150 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



struction is given, is obvious. Under a skillful taecher, this 
handicap is gradually overcome, but only after considerable loss 
of time and effort, not only for the foreign child immediately 
concerned, but also for English-speaking members of the same 
class. In the interest of efficiency non-English-speaking chil- 
dren should be classified by themselves, put in charge of teachers 
especially qualified to deal with them, and be instructed with 
due regard to their handicap, with the purpose of overcoming 

Pupils 



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(The thirty-sixth milestone, to which reference is made on 
page 149, comes at the end of Grade 6B. The dotted line indi- 
cates the way the enrollment should hold up to the end of the 
ninth grade, if the educational opportunity of Portland, as de- 
scribed on pages 92-93, were taken advantage of.) 



that handicap as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. A year 
of such special instruction will usually be found sufficient to 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 151 

qualify these pupils to enter regular classes, with advantage to 
themselves and without disadvantage to others. In that time 
they will have made much more progress, not only in the mastery 
of the English language, but in the other regular subjects of 
instruction, than they could have made in classification with 
English-speaking pupils. 

Where the numbers are sufficient, it may be found ad- 
vantageous to group non-English-speaking pupils by nationali- 
ties, although this is not at all necessary to their successful 
instruction. It will also be desirable that the teachers of these 
pupils have some speaking knowledge of the pupils' native 
tongue; but neither is this a prerequisite of success. Only let 
the instruction be objective, concrete, clear, and patient, and 
pupils of normal intelligence will rapidly acquire the language 
new to them. Better habits of pronunciation and enunciation, 
and more correct and accurate use of the language, can be 
gained under this special instruction than is wont to result when 
foreign children must get command of English, as best they can, 
in classes of English-speaking children. 

Segregating Markedly Abnormal and the Subnormal Children 

The importance of segregating pupils of marked defects, 
mental or physical, also those who, without special defect, are 
endowed with natural ability distinctly below normal, is now 
generally recognized, not only in theory, but in the practice 
of all progressive school systems. Results everywhere demon- 
strate the value of this policy. A detailed discussion of the 
types of abnormal and subnormal children, needing segregation 
and special treatment, is presented in Chapter XIV. No less 
important is it, though in practice, at least, not yet so generally 
appreciated, to recognize, with appropriate treatment, pupils 
of exceptional ability, general or special. Such recognition does 
not necessarily involve separate classification; individual en- 
couragement and opportunity to do more and better work in 
general, or to pursue some particular line much farther than 
most pupils are expected or able to do, while working in regular 
classes with normal children, will often be better than segrega- 
tion, not only for the specially endowed child, but also for the 
other children. 

Influence of Sex in Determining the Grouping of Pupils. 

While there is some slight difference of opinion, and very 
slight — relatively negligible — difference in practice, sex, as such, 
seems to afford little valid basis for any marked distinction, 
either in organization or in the content and method of in- 
struction, previous to twelve, thirteen, or possibly fourteen 
years of age. From this age on, there is much more difference 



152 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

both of opinion and of practice regarding co-education. Neither 
argument nor practice, however, has yet demonstrated at all 
conclusively the superiority either of co-education or of sepa- 
ration of the sexes during the early adolescent period, — as long 
as the subject matter of their instruction remains the same. This 
applies to pupils pursuing the conventional high school courses, 
— courses designed to fit for colleges, whose admission require- 
ments disregard sex, and general academic courses made up of 
varying proportions of college preparatory subjects, but fitting 
neither sex for anything in particular. 

The situation regarding co-education becomes quite differ- 
ent, however, as the specific educational needs of boys and 
girls are distinguished and recognized with types of instruction 
specially adapted to meet those needs. For example, practical 
courses in household arts are especially adapted to the needs 
of girls, while equally practical courses in the machine shop are 
especially adapted to the needs of some boys. The introduction 
of these, and similar courses meeting specific needs, varying 
with the sexes, necessarily involves the separation of sexes, 
so far as instruction in these courses is concerned. But the 
introduction of these specific, practical courses, some adapted 
to the peculiar needs of boys, others to the peculiar needs of 
girls, is beginning to influence materially, as it ought, the 
instruction in other subjects pursued along with these practical 
courses. The mathematics and science, for examples, that should 
accompany a course in the household arts are quite different 
from the mathematics and science best suited to a course in the 
machine shop; the same is true also, to some extent, of history, 
and even of English. Thus, without regard to the merits of 
the question concerning the mere association of the sexes while 
under instruction, their separation is being determined, and 
rightly so, through the pursuit of courses of instruction espe- 
cially adapted to the preparation of members of the different 
sexes for those types of service that they can best render. 

The separation of sexes brought about in this way necessar- 
ily extends only to the rooms in which instruction is given. 
Whether this separation should extend to the building occupied 
is an open question, best settled for the present by expediency. 

5. FOUR MAIN GROUPS, OR TYPES OF SCHOOLS 

As the school population of the district is studied indi- 
vidually and classified, for efficient instruction, with due re- 
gard to the seven factors that have now been discussed, this 
population will be found to fall into four fairly distinct groups, 
best represented under the names of the types of education 
best suited to the needs of the respective groups. Such a repre- 
sentation is given in Table 20, reproduced on the opposite page. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 153 



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154 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

The estimated numbers of each group can be considered only 
approximate, and very roughly approximate, at that. The exact 
numbers, which, of course, will be subject to constant variation, 
both absolutely and relatively, can obviously be determined only 
by study and experience. These rough estimates are made up on 
the basis of a consideration of the numbers of children of 
various ages now enrolled, and some experience with and knowl- 
edge of the proportionate distribution of pupils where plans of 
classification and provisions for adequate, differentiated in- 
struction, similar to those here recomended, are carried out. 

It will be noted that the total estimates fall between the 
total number of children of school age in the district, and the 
present total enrolment in the schools. This is due to the fact 
that a portion, but only a portion, of the children and youth 
whose ages fall outside the limits established for compulsory 
attendance, can be expected to enroll, even though the most 
advantageous provisions are made for them. Just what this 
portion will prove to be, of course only experience can show. 
Whatever it is at the outset, it is sure to increase rapidly, as 
children and their parents come to appreciate the new ad- 
vantages being offered them. 

Instruction Fitted to Different Groups of Pupils 

The content and character of the instruction appropriate 
to each of the four parts into which the whole period of 
instruction is divided — the Kindergarten, Elementary, Interme- 
diate, and Secondary — is not implied with sufficient defiteness 
by these terms. Without going into unnecessary detail, the 
scope and purpose of the instruction appropriate to each of 
these four stages of progress will be outlined and its adaptation 
to different types of pupils indicated. (See also Chapter XI.) 

(a) the kindergarten 

For children at the kindergarten stage, that is from four 
up to, but not including, six years of age, no form of instruction 
has yet been worked out that has proved as suitable as that 
which goes under the name of kindergarten. While a consider- 
able variety of procedure is now found bearing this general label, 
the same purpose, fundamental characteristics, and general 
methods are found in all kindergartens, and are too well known 
to need any detailed description here. 

The provision of kindergarten instruction as a part of 
the public school system is chiefly confined to cities and the 
larger centers of population; it is almost unknown in rural 
districts. In the cities and larger centers, it is much more 
common in the East than in any other part of the country, 
though perhaps no city in the United States has made a more 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 155 

conspicious success in providing kindergarten instruction than 
has the city of Los Angeles. There can be no longer any 
question of the value of kindergarten instruction as the first 
stage in city public school systems; its value has been demon- 
strated abundantly during a period of more than twenty-five 
years. 

Five Thousand Children of Kindergarten Age 

According to the latest census figures, there are in the 
Portland school district, somewhat over 5,000 children of kinder- 
garten age. Were kindergartens opened all over the city, so as 
to be accessible to all these children, it is scarcely probable that 
more than sixty per cent of them would be enrolled at any one 
time, and the maximum enrolment might not exceed fifty, or 
even forty per cent. Although eligible for admission at four, 
many would not enter until five or even older, in time to get 
a year, or half-year, of kindergarten instruction before entering 
the grades, while others would pass by the kindergarten entirely. 
The continuance in membership of those enrolled would also 
prove much less permanent than that in the grades. Hence, 
taking these things into consideration, and comparing the ex- 
perience of places in which the kindergarten is a part of the 
school system, the above outside estimate of a membership of 
sixty per cent of the possible maximum, that is of 3,000, seems 
to be liberal, with fifty per cent, or 2,500, probably nearer what 
experience would demonstrate. This membership might be con- 
siderably, though not proportionately, reduced by requiring 
an age of four and one-half, or even of five years, as a condition 
of admission. 

Cost of Kindergarten Instruction 

Assuming that the salaries paid kindergarten teachers, spe- 
cially trained, such as it would be necessary to employ, were 
approximately on the same basis as the salaries now paid 
primary grade teachers, the annual cost per kindergarten pupil 
might be somewhat more, or considerably less than the cost per 
grade pupil, depending upon the plans on which the kinder- 
gartens were conducted. 

Two teachers, a head kindergartner and an assistant, can 
instruct a class of forty to fifty kindergarten children as effi- 
ciently as can a single grade teacher a class of thirty-five or 
forty pupils. A single session of two and one-half hours is 
sufficient for kindergarten children. Teachers may be required 
to teach only a single session and a single group of children 
in a day, devoting the free half-day to the preparation of work, 
and to making acquaintance with the mothers and the home 
life of their pupils, or they may be required to teach two 



156 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

sessions, with a different set of children at each session. Both 
plans are in use, but the former is far preferable. 

With the assistant receiving a salary one-half to two-thirds 
that of the head kindergartner, as would be appropriate, and 
with kindergartners teaching only one group of children each 
day, the cost of instruction per kindergarten pupil would be 
more — probably about thirty per cent more, on the average — 
than the cost of instruction per grade pupil. With kinder- 
gartners teaching two groups of pupils per day, other conditions 
remaining the same, the cost per kindergarten pupil would be 
probably thirty-five per cent less, on the average, than the cost 
per grade pupil. 

The task of the kindergartner teaching a single session is 
unquestionably somewhat lighter than that of the grade teacher 
who teaches two sessions, each as long as the kindergartner's 
single session; while the task of the kindergartner teaching two 
full sessions is probably somewhat more trying than is that of 
the grade teacher. Were this plan of having kindergartners 
teach two sessions adopted, it might be well to reduce to 
two hours the length of the afternoon session, which should 
then be devoted to the younger children. 

Whether kindergarten teachers conduct two sessions or 
one, the same rooms, as far as practicable, should be used for 
two sessions daily; this is in the interest of the economic use 
of the school plant. 

Kindergartens Should Be Provided Eventually; Other Provisions 
Now More Important and Pressing 

To make kindergarten instruction available for all children 
of the district of kindergarten age is a practical ideal which the 
public should approve, and toward which the school authorities 
may well work as rapidly as provision for other and more 
pressing interests will permit. Kindergartens are not of equal 
importance in all parts of the city. Where home conditions 
are unfavorable, in the more congested districts, where the 
opportunities for out-door plaj^ under wholesome conditions are 
restricted, there the kindergarten will render its largest service; 
and in such sections it should be established first. But the 
establishment of kindergartens, even in such sections as these, 
should wait on the provision of extensive, varied and relatively 
expensive opportunities for the more efficient education of at 
least four thousand youth now in the schools, and of an equally 
large number who have left the schools, because of the lack of 
instruction suited to their needs. 

(b) elementary instruction 

The subjects of instruction appropriate to the elementary 
stage of education, covering normally six grades and six years, 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 157 

and to be pursued, for the most part, by children from six to 
twelve years of age, are the following: 

1. The language arts. 

a. Reading. 

b. Writing. 

c. Spelling and composition, oral and written. 

2. Arithmetic. 

3. Geography. 

4. History of the United States. 

5. Hygiene, physical training, and physiology. 

6. Drawing, and elementary manual training. 

7. Nature study. 

8. Vocal music. 

In the above list, there can be little question that the first 
two subjects, the language arts and arithmetic, are placed in 
the order of their relative importance for practically all children. 
With some little hesitancy, geography and history are given third 
and fourth places respectively; regarding the relative importance 
of the four remaining subjects there may well be differences 
of opinion, and even of fact, depending upon circumstances. 
With the exception of history, all the subjects here scheduled 
are included in the present course of study for the first six 
grades. Sufficient time for this subject might well be taken 
from the present allotment to physiology, two hours and five 
minutes per week, which is excessive. 

The desirability of important variations from present prac- 
tices, respecting both the content and methods of treatment of 
principal subjects, have already been implied in the criticisms 
of the present course of study and methods of instruction given 
in the preceding chapter. Only a brief positive outline of the 
principal contents and methods of treatment of these subjects 
need be given here. 

The Language Arts 

The several language arts should be closely correlated with 
each other, much more closely than seems to be the present 
prevailing practice. The learning of these arts should also be 
much more closely correlated with other subjects, especially 
with geography, history, nature study, and drawing. Reading 
should involve not merely the learning to read fluently and 
intelligently, which is now admirably achieved in the first two 
or three grades, but the reading of a large amount of good 
literature, and the formation of taste for good reading and the 
habit of reading with discrimination. From three to four times 
as many books as are now prescribed for the nine grades can 
well be read and studied thoroughly in six grades. 



158 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

The use of language, in written composition, involves pen- 
manship, spelling, and a practical knowledge of correct language 
forms, chiefly punctuation and capitalization. But all these 
forms are merely means to an end — the effective and accurate 
expression of ideas and feelings— and should be so taught and 
so learned. This means that content should always be dominant, 
form subordinate, in all instruction in composition. Only in 
subordination to content does form possess any real value. This 
is as true in oral as in written composition. 

The Essentials of Arithmetic 

The essentials of arithmetic involve merely the mastery of 
the four fundamental operations in the use of whole numbers 
and fractions, common and decimal. The process of acquiring 
this mastery should be made as concrete as possible, through the 
use of suitable objects and graphic illustrations. Constant and 
abundant applications of number' and arithmetical processes 
should be made in the solution of problems whose facts and con- 
ditions come within the familiar experience of pupils; this work 
should involve practical knowledge of the standard tables of 
measurement in general use. Beyond the foregoing, the only 
work in arithmetic that is desirable in this elementary stage of 
education — and this is by no means essential at this time — is a 
practical understanding of that form of decimals known as per- 
centage, and some practice in the applications of percentage to 
simple problems in interest, taxes, and discounts. 

Practical Geography 

The geography of this elementary period should have to do 
primarily with the United States, particularly with the great 
Northwest and the Pacific Coast; secondarily with the world, 
with most attention to those countries and peoples with whom 
we have, or are soon to have, the closest commercial relations, — 
Canada, the countries of Europe, South and Central America, 
Japan, and China. This subject should develop naturally, out 
of much first-hand study of the wealth of geographic phenome- 
na of Portland and vicinity, — beginning in the third, even to some 
extent, in connection with nature study, in the second grade, and 
continuing throughout every grade. This study should be made 
practical, concrete, and comprehensible to the children, through 
the use of abundant illustrative material, pictures, and speci- 
mens, and also through the reading of geographical readers, as 
well as through the study of regular texts. No other subject pos- 
sesses greater possibilities of interest. 

Historical Biography 

During this elementary period, every child should become 
familiar with the names and learn something of the lives and 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 159 

achievements of the great characters, men and women, who 
have played the leading parts in the history of our country. 
Through the study of these characters, much will be learned of 
the significant events and movements in our country's develop- 
ment. This study should begin, even in the lowest grades, with 
stories of the great historic characters — Columbus, Boone, Wash- 
ington, Lincoln, and a score of others. Easy historical readers, 
of which there are a few good ones, may be used in the third 
and fourth grades, but should not entirely supersede oral stories. 
Suitable for fifth and sixth grades, there are several good books 
that combine successfully biography and a systematic presenta- 
tion of the most important features of our country's history. 

Nature Study, Hygiene and Other Subjects 

Nature study, based entirely upon the direct observation of 
natural phenomena, and closely correlated with school garden- 
ing, geography, drawing, literature, and composition, should re- 
ceive some attention in every grade. As was pointed out in 
Chapter VII, a course rich in the elements of the different sci- 
ences, and culminating in specific instruction in agriculture and 
general science in the upper grades, should be marked features 
of the elementary school work in Portland. 

The importance and character of instruction to be given in 
hygiene and physical training is discussed in Chapter XIV, sub- 
divisions 7 and 8, and will not be taken up here. The remaining 
elementary subjects, — drawing, sewing, cooking, school garden- 
ing, manual work, and vocal music, are treated separately in 
Chapter X, and for the same reason will not be considered here. 

The Desirable and the Essential Distinguished 

The subjects of study briefly outlined above are those best 
suited to occupy the attention of the large majority of children 
from six to twelve years of age; some will be ready to pass on 
to the next, the intermediate stage of education, a little earlier; 
others will need to continue a little longer in this elementary 
stage. The subjects here outlined form the best, and, to a cer- 
tain extent, the essential basis for the work of the intermediate 
stage. But only to a certain extent are these subjects essential; 
indeed, only a knowledge of the language arts and of arith- 
metic, and that not as thorough or as extensive as was outlined 
above, is essential in preparation for successful work of the 
intermediate stage. Provided these barest essentials have been 
acquired, even quite imperfectly, a child should not be kept on 
this elementary work long after the normal age for taking up in- 
termediate work has been reached, — that is, not beyond thir- 
teen, or, in extreme cases of immaturity, fourteen years of age. 



160 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

(C) THE INTERMEDIATE STAGE. 

This Calls for Differentiation 

With the intermediate stage of education, to be entered 
upon normally by the majority of children at twelve, by some 
a year earlier, by others a year later, come the obvious begin- 
nings of differentiation. The children have been differentiat- 
ing themselves throughout the elementary stage; they have been 
manifesting and developing their individual capacities and in- 
terests; the term of compulsory schooling will soon be com- 
pleted; the question of the probable future arises, and should be 
raised seriously, concerning each child. While no attempt 
should be made at this stage to predict definitely, much less 
to determine, the future of any child, it requires but the exercise 
of common sense to see at least the general direction in which 
the future of many children must lie. 

Such indications of differentiating needs as now begin to 
manifest themselves demand corresponding beginnings of dif- 
ferentiation in the subject matter and method of instruction. In- 
stead of a single course, which all pupils must pursue entire, 
there should be now offered several courses, identical, or sim- 
ilar, in respect to at least one-half their content, but distinctly 
differentiated in respect to a single subject, or a small group of 
allied subjects. Each of these courses should consist of three 
grades, and should involve normally three years' work. While 
they should all be planned to lead into the still further differ- 
entiated courses of the secondary period, certain of them should 
be so immediately practical that pupils, terminating their school- 
ing with the completion of the compulsory attendance period, 
which corresponds with the normal completion of this inter- 
mediate stage, would be equipped with a considerable degree of 
specific preparation for definite service. 

The intermediate courses, leading directly into secondary 
courses similar to the present high-school courses, would cover 
work equivalent to that of the first high-school year, as at 
present arranged. This arrangement reduces by one grade the 
length of the present grade and high-school courses, and 
shortens the school work from thirteen to twelve years. The 
equivalent of a grade can be readily and most advantageously 
saved by eliminating a considerable portion of the abstract 
arithmetic, and nearly all of the technical grammar, subjects 
which now consume one-third of the time, and much more than 
one-third of the energy, of both pupils and teachers in the three 
higher grammar grades. 

Literary and Pre-Vocational Courses 

Courses appropriate to this intermediate period are of two 
general types, that may be designated as literary and pre-vo- 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 161 



calional. As these names suggest, those of the former type are 
more abstract, bookish, and theoretical, while those of the latter 
are more concrete and immediately practical. The literary 
courses are more closely allied, in content and method, to the 
present grammar and the first year of the literary high-school 
courses. 

The subjects composing the literary courses should be as 
follows : 4 

1. English: Literature, written and oral composition, and 
the elements of grammar. 

2. Mathematics: Arithmetic, algebra, geometry. 

3. History: A more thorough study of United States his- 
tory than that provided for the elementary period; also a study 
of European, especially English history, in its closer relations 
to the history of the United States; two years. 

4. Civics: Government of city, state, and nation; one year. 

5. Geography : Continued one year from the elementary 
period. 

6. Elementary science: A continuation and systematization 
of the nature study of the elementary period. 

7. Current events. 

8. Hygiene, — personal and community; and physical train- 
ing. 

9. A modern language; two or three years. 

10. Drawing: Free hand and mechanical. 

11. Manual Training. 

12. Household arts: Sewing and cooking. 

13. Vocal music. 

Work Adapted to Individual Needs 

Of this rather formidable array of subjects, it should be 
noted that civics and geography are scheduled for one year 
only, — history, and possibly the modern language, for two years 
only; while to each of several other subjects, as elementary sci- 
ence, current events, hygiene, drawing, manual training, house- 
hold arts and vocal music, not more than two exercises per week 
should be given. Moreover, no individual pupil should be held, 
contrary to his best interests, to the study of all these subjects; 
on the other hand, some specialization in accordance with a 
pupil's talents, interests, or probable future, should be permitted 
and encouraged. For example, not all pupils pursuing a lit- 
erary course should take up a modern language; not everyone 



4 See also the outlines for general, commercial, and vocational 
courses, submitted by Superintendent Francis, and printed in 
Chapter XI, Table 21. 



162 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

should necessarily take either manual training or household arts; 
even the whole course in mathematics might well be omitted by 
some; while still others might devote more than the average 
time to any one of these or of the other subjects. The subjects 
here indicated should be used to serve the individual interests 
of pupils. The prime object of this stage of education is that 
every pupil in it be taught most effectively; not that this, or 
any other array of subjects, be mastered by every pupil. 

It is entirely feasible to conduct a school in this way. To 
be sure, it cannot be done by routine; the exact work of every 
pupil cannot be predetermined years in advance. To educate 
pupils intelligently, not merely to see that the predetermined 
school mechanism runs smoothlj 7 , requires the constant study, 
thought, and wise judgment of both teachers and principals. 
But study, thought, judgment, and the assumption of educa- 
tional responsibility, ought to be fundamental in the demands 
made upon every one immediately concerned in the education 
of children and youth. 

P re-Vocational Courses 

The pre-vocational courses appropriate to this intermediate 
period should serve two ends, not dissimilar in their demands: 
(1) They should prepare for the vocational courses of the sec- 
ondary period those pupils who continue in school beyond the 
intermediate period; and (2) they should give those pupils who 
conclude their schooling with this period some practical and 
definite preparation for entrance into some particular field of 
usefulness. These pre-vocational courses should be distinguished 
from each other, as well as from the literary courses, by the 
immediately practical study which should be prominent in each 
one of them. These practical studies, to meet Portland's needs, 
should look toward at least five radically different types of 
service, as follows: 

1. Commercial: 

a. Clerical service, involving bookkeeping and type- 

writing. 

b. Selling. 

2. Manufacturing and mechanical: 

a. Woodworking trades, — particularly general carpentry 

and cabinet-making. 

b. Metal-working trades. 

c. Electrical trades. 

d. Sewing trades. 

3. Agricultural. 

4. Home-making. 

5. Printing and bookbinding. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 163 

Preparation looking toward the above five general types 
of service will give rise to at least five, and may give rise to 
several more, pre-vocational courses. Each one of these pre- 
vocational courses will involve the study of the following sub- 
jects, made concrete and practical, and correlated with the prac- 
tical subject that distinguishes the course: 

1. English: Composition and literature. 

2. Mathematics: Chiefly arithmetic, applied. 

3. Geography and history, with particular reference to com- 
merce and industry. 

4. Civics : Government of city, state, and nation. 

5. Drawing: Mechanical, free-hand, design. 

6. Hygiene and physical training. 

7. Elementary science. 

8. Current events. 

Pupils' Capacities and Interests Tested in the Intermediate Stage 

In addition to serving definitely the varied needs of indi- 
vidual boys and girls, as these have become evident previous to 
entrance upon this intermediate period, the variety and range 
of instruction offered in the literary and pre-vocational courses 
of this period should serve to test the interests and to bring out 
the special capacities of most of those pupils whose educational 
needs have not previously declared themselves, so that when 
the work of the scondary period is reached, it will be possible 
to determine intelligently, in the case of most pupils, what their 
secondary course of study should be. While considerable be- 
ginnings in differentiation have been made in this intermediate 
period, so much of the instruction has been essentially common 
to all the courses — the English, arithmetic, history, and geog- 
raphy — that anj r pupil, whose capacity and interest make it 
advisable, can change his course at any time during this inter- 
mediate period, or even at the beginning of the secondary pe- 
riod, and adjust himself without great difficulty to any other 
course that promises greater benefit to him. 

(d) the secondary school. 

Secondary Instruction Determined by Length of Time Pupil 
Will Continue in School 

The instruction of the secondary period must carry much 
further the differentiation begun in the intermediate period, in 
order to meet the further differentiated needs of the youth of 
this secondary period. The length of time that a pupil will 
probably continue in school now becomes one of the most im- 
portant considerations in determining what that pupil's instruc- 



164 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

tion should be. Indeed, because the probable length of a pupil's 
schooling is usually, to a large extent, the resultant of that 
pupil's capacity and interests, as well as of his economic cir- 
cumstances, this factor of time may safely be given first con- 
sideration in determining, in a general way, the character of 
the course of instruction that will prove most beneficial. 

Preparatory and Vocational Courses of Wide Range 

Hence it is that the wide range of secondary courses of 
instruction, adequate to the diverse needs of thousands of youth 
in this secondary period, naturally fall into two groups, that 
may be designated respectively as preparatory and vocational. 
The former group of courses, as their suggested designation im- 
plies, should prepare for admission to the work of higher insti- 
tutions, — colleges, universities, normal schools, and other schools 
for advanced special training, — those students who are to con- 
tinue their education beyond this secondary period. The latter 
group of courses, the vocational, should prepare for immediate, 
definite service, — through a wide range of specifically practical 
instruction, adapted on the one hand to the wide range of in- 
dividual capacity and interest, and on the other to the diversi- 
fied needs of the community, — those youth whose schooling is 
to terminate with this secondary period. 

All complete courses of this period should be so planned as 
to call normally for three years of work. Yet they should be 
flexible enough in arrangement and administration to meet in- 
dividual capacity and conditions, especially permitting and 
encouraging part-time work, where circumstances make this 
necessary, and in such cases extending over a longer period 
than three years. The vocational courses should be so arranged 
that pupils who leave them at any point, of necessity or other- 
wise, will find themselves prepared, in proportion to the time 
and effort that they have so far devoted to their training, to 
render service in their chosen field. 

Content and Purpose of Preparatory Courses 

The content of the preparatory courses will be determined 
by the admission requirements imposed by the higher institu- 
tions for whose work these courses are to prepare. Such insti- 
tutions generally are now tending, much more than a few years 
ago, to make their requirements quite general, leaving to sec- 
ondary schools, and to candidates seeking admission, much dis- 
cretion regarding the combination of subjects to be studied. 
However, to meet general requirements of admission to these 
higher institutions, and to afford a range of subjects suited to 
the varying capacities and interests of pupils, it will be neces- 
sary that the following five distinct fields of study be provided 
in the preparatorjr courses, and that the preparation of any in- 
dividual pupil consist chiefly of work within these fields : 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 165 

1. English: Literature and composition. 

2. Mathematics: Algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. 

3. Science : Physics, chemistry, and the biological sciences. 

4. History: Ancient, mediaeval, modern, American. 

5. Languages: Modern languages, and Latin. 

Instruction in mechanical and free-hand drawing and de- 
sign, manual training, and household arts should also be pro- 
vided. 

All the above fields and subjects of study are now included 
in the high-school curriculum. By selecting and combining in 
varying proportions from these subjects, an indefinite number 
of "courses" may be made, as the present so-called English, 
Latin, German, scientific and college preparatory courses have 
been made. The making of such courses should be largely in- 
dividual, and determined merely by convenience; they should 
aid and not hinder the adaptation of work to the individual 
needs of every pupil. In practice there must be as many 
"courses" as there are pupils. True, many of these "courses" 
will be identical; but identity of courses should always arise as 
a resultant of adapting work to individual needs; it should never 
be a primary fact to which pupils must adjust themselves. 

(For a further discussion of the vocational courses, see Chap- 
ters X and XL) 

Courses of Study Must Change Constantly 

The range of instruction that has been outlined to meet the 
educational needs of the children and youth in the different 
stages of their growth must be taken as only roughly, approxi- 
mately, and temporarily adequate. Indeed, these outlines may 
well be considered as merely tentative and suggestive. It is not 
for any one, either without or within a school system, to de- 
termine in detail the subjects of instruction and the combination 
of such subjects; this must be the inalienable and unceasing 
function of teachers, principals, supervisors and superintendent, 
working together to understand and to meet the ever-varying 
needs of their pupils, to fit them for the ever-varying demands 
of society for worthy service. Courses of study must be con- 
stantly changing. A fixed course of study is indisputable evi- 
dence of the neglect or surrender of the primary function of a 
true teacher — the discriminating education of- individuality. 

"Promotion" Must Be Determined Not by What a Pupil Has 
Learned, but by What He Needs to Learn 

Just as the present scheme of promotion in the elementary 
schools, in complete harmony with the rigidly mechanical, all- 
dominating system, grows naturally, almost inevitably, out of 
that system, so the advancement of pupils from grade to grade 



164 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



and from stage to stage in the educational program that has 
been here outlined must be in harmony with the principles 
underlying this program. The most fundamental principle of 
all, in this connection, is that instruction, both in content and 
in method, must be adapted to pupils' needs, to individual needs; 
not the instruction that a pupil has had, but the instruction that 
he needs; not what a pupil has learned, but what he most needs 
to learn, must determine the placing of that pupil. 

Carried into practice, this means that when a pupil has 
reached in maturity and need the intermediate period, he is to 
be advanced to instruction appropriate to that period, whether 
he has completed the normal work of the elementary period or 
not; it means that when a pupil has reached in maturity and 
need the secondary period, he is to be advanced to instruction 
appropriate to that period, whether he has completed the nor- 
mal work of the intermediate period or not. If such pupils are 
incapable of taking up work usually given in the intermediate 
or in the secondary periods, then work adapted to their needs 
must be provided. This is the simple principle that must pre- 
vail, that a child in the intermediate, or a youth in the secondary 
stage of development, belongs with other children in the inter- 
mediate or with other youth in the secondary stage of develop- 
ment. Instruction must always fit the stage of development, 
even to the individual needs in that stage of development; ele- 
mentary instruction is not suitable for children of the inter- 
mediate stage, nor is intermediate instruction suitable for youth 
of the secondary stage. 

The converse of the above proposition is almost equally 
true; intermediate instruction is not suitable for children of the 
elementary, nor is secondary instruction suitable for children of 
the intermediate stage. In practice, the number of pupils in 
danger of being advanced too rapidly is small compared with 
the number in danger of being kept back in stages of instruction 
below their needs. When courses of study are given breadth 
and depth, as well as length, there will be found few children 
whose education cannot most profitably be given in that stage 
of development to which they belong. 

Within the different stages, pupils must be grouped into 
classes for instruction in accordance with their needs, those 
whose needs of instruction are similar being grouped together. 
Those whose needs differ materially, whether in respect to con- 
tent of subject matter, method, or rate of progress, should not be 
grouped together. Regroupings should take place whenever pu- 
pils' changing needs require. 

The Execution of the Plans Outlined Is Worthy of Real Teachers 

and Principals 

It must be obvious that the execution of plans such as these 
plans of advancing pupils and of fitting work to their individual 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 167 

needs, can be reduced to no mechanism; hence they cannot be 
depended upon to execute themselves, with a modicum of atten- 
tion and inspection from time to time. The success of such 
plans will depend upon the constant and appreciative study 
of pupils, keen insight into their individual characters, the ex- 
ercise of sound judgment, and the willingness to assume large 
educational responsibilities, on the part both of teachers and 
principals, under the wise guidance of supervisors and superin- 
tendents. Such demands are, indeed, difficult to meet, but they 
are worthy of real teachers and principals. No really compe- 
tent and worthy teacher or principal will shirk such service as 
this, or declare such plans as these impossible. Indeed, there 
could be devised no surer way of distinguishing the competent 
and worthy from the incompetent and unworthy than this set- 
ting before teachers and principals a real problem of education, 
and giving them freedom and responsibility, under general lead- 
ership, to solve it. 

Principals should be charged primarily with the responsi- 
bility of seeing not only that all pupils who ought to be en- 
rolled with them are enrolled, and that the pupils actually en- 
rolled in their schools are getting individually the kind of treat- 
ment they need, but they should also be charged with respon- 
sibility, to the extent of their control and influence, for the 
educational welfare of the children and youth of their respective 
districts who do not belong in their schools. When a pupil's 
educational need demands that he pass on from the elementary 
to the intermediate, or from the intermediate to the secondary 
stage of instruction, it is the principal's function to see that the 
passage is made successfully, even when this carries the pupil 
beyond the principal's official jurisdiction. No arbitrary limits 
should bound the service of principals or teachers. Co-opera- 
tion should prevail in every direction throughout the system. 

6. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AN EDUCATIONAL 
PROGRAM ADAPTED TO LOCAL NEEDS. 

1. In simplest terms Portland's educational problem is this: 
What shall be done for the forty-three thousand children and 
youth of the city that their value to themselves and to the com- 
munity may be increased to the largest possible extent? 

2. Always the first and most important step in the solution 
of this problem is an appreciative understanding of the capaci- 
ties, interests, possibilities, of each one of these forty-three 
thousand individuals. 

3. Such an understanding can be gained by no one, by no 
small number of persons; this is the great responsibility of the 
nine hundred teachers, principals, supervisors and superintend- 
ents. 



168 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

4. An adequate educational program for the community 
must be based on the individual needs of the boys and girls to 
be educated, and the community needs for service. 

5. Such a program does not call for individual instruction, 
to any considerable extent; it does call for the grouping of pupils 
•into schools and classes in accordance with similarity of needs. 

(3. Seven factors must be considered in determining ade- 
quate grouping of pupils for instruction : 

a. Maturity, most readily but only roughly indicated by 

age. 

b. Knowledge, and ability to learn and to do. 

c. Probable time to be devoted to schooling. 

d. Natural capacity and interest. 

e. Command of the English language. 

f. Marked defects, abnormalities and subnormalities, 

physical and mental. 

g. Sex. 

7. The significance of age: 

a. Children under six are educable, and suitable provision 

should be made for them. 

b. Children of a greater age-range than three or four 

years cannot be advantageously instructed in classes 
together; ten per cent of the pupils in the elemen- 
tary grades in Portland need reclassification on ac- 
count of age alone. 

c. "Over-age" is the resultant of one or more of a large 

number of diverse causes. All over-age pupils 
should be studied, and suitable treatment applied. 
It is still more important to anticipate and prevent 
the development of over-age pupils. 

8. Knowledge and ability respecting conventional school 
subjects is a most useful criterion for determining appropriate 
classification and instruction, but it is not the only one. 

9. As all public instruction should be designed to fit the 
recipient of it for largest usefulness, the time available for such 
instruction must be an important factor in determining what that 
instruction shall be. 

10. Instruction is effective only as it is adapted to the ca- 
pacity and interest of the recipient. 

11. Ignorance of the English language is a handicap that calls 
for separate classification and special instruction. 

12. Markedly abnormal and subnormal children should be 
segregated, both in their own interest and in the interest of nor- 
mal children. 

13. Separate classification according to sex is involved in- 
directly in carrying on instruction in preparation for fields of 
service peculiarly appropriate to the one sex or the other. 



CHAP. IX. OUTLINE OF AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 169 

14. The school population falls into four large, fairly dis- 
tinct groups, best represented under the names of the types of 
education best suited to the respective group needs: 

a. The kindergarten group. 

b. The elementary group. 

c. The intermediate group. 

d. The secondary group. 

15. Instruction for each group must be adapted to the needs 
of the children or youth of that group: 

a. The kindergarten group requires the best form of 

kindergarten instruction. 

b. The elementary group needs instruction in : 

1. The language arts: Reading, writing, spelling, 

and composition. 

2. Arithmetic. 

3. Geography. 

4. History of the United States. 

5. Hygiene, physical training, and physiology. 

6. Drawing, and elementary manual training. 

7. Nature study. 

8. Vocal music. 

c. The intermediate group requires differentiated courses 

of instruction: 

1. Literary. 

2. Pre-vocational. 

d. The secondary group requires still farther differen- 

tiated courses: 

1. Preparatory. 

2. Vocational. 

16. Courses of study must change constantly to meet the 
ever-changing needs of pupils, and to fit for the ever-varying 
service that society demands. 

17. Promotion must be based not on what a pupil has 
learned, but on what he needs to learn. 

18. The successful execution of this program demands the 
assumption of large educational responsibility by teachers and 
principals; it calls for appreciative study, the exercise of keen 
insight and sound judgment, and the unfailing co-operation, 
under wise leadership, of all. 



170 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Chapter X 

THE PRESENT OFFERING OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN 

VOCATIONAL STUDIES, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR 

IMPROVEMENTS. 

(Francis.) 

1. PROMINENT SHC^- ■"«= T " T THE ELEMENTARY 

SCHOOL WORK. 

Portland's comprehension of the problem of elementary ed- 
ucation, as shown in printed courses of study and the presenta- 
tion of subject matter in the class-rooms, seems to me to be 
much too limited. Portland seems to be failing especially in 
the following particulars: 

In Xot Taking Advantage of the Life Experience of the Child 

The school takes the child from a very wonderful set of ex- 
periences, which have so far been the determining factors in 
his life, and forces him into an environment that has little or 
nothing in common with these, or any other important life ex- 
periences. The principal business of the child in the first few 
grades is to play, and to grow, — not to read, write, spell, and 
cipher. These are incidental in importance. If they can be 
made a part of the play, it is well to use them; if not, they 
should be handled sparingly. Portland's schools are making life 
too formal, too serious, too uninteresting, and too unnatural for 
her children. 

In Not Properly Establishing and Maintaining Kindergartens 

There probably is force in the contention that children en- 
ter school too young; but there are no physiological, psycholog- 
ical, nor sociological reasons why a child should go to school 
when he is six years old that would not equally apply to his 
entering city schools at five or four years of age, if the instruc- 
tion offered were suited to his needs. The six-year age for at- 
tending schools is traditional, and was probably originally fixed 
at the time when the child could overcome the physical diffi- 
culties of reaching the school. These have been removed in our 
modern cities. Mr. Ayres, of the Russell Sage Foundation, has 
proved by an exhaustive test that there is no difference in the 
mental attainment and strength of twelfth-grade pupils between 
those who have and those who have not gone through the kin- 
dergarten. Had the data been available and the test been made, 
doubtless the same conclusions would have been reached con- 
cerning those who have and those who have not gone through 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 171 

the first grade. Given home conditions that approach the ideal 
for child growth and training, most students would agree that 
the age of entering school should be postponed, unless, of course, 
school conditions might be materially modified and made to 
more nearly approach ideal conditions for the developing and 
training of children. Certain it is that under present conditions 
in our large cities, complicated by social and economic forces, 
our cities must become partially responsible for children earlier 
than six years of age, and the kindergarten, with its ideals and 
practices, is a much more normal place for children than the 
grade schools. 

In Not Properly Recognizing the Motor Instincts of Children 

In the earlier grades the work is largely bookish, formal, 
mechanical, and unapplied. Children love to do things, and to 
make things. Most of their work should consist of these activi- 
ties. . The relative time and importance given to abstract, aca- 
demic work and to applied work, in the Portland schools, should 
be reversed. 

In Lack of Understanding of the Value of Play in the Develop- 
ment of the Child 

"Play is the business of childhood." The supervision, while 
excellent, is inadequate; many of the schools are without play- 
grounds worthy of the name. I saw none equipped with suffi- 
cient play apparatus. I saw no play in the school rooms, with 
windows raised and children engaged in physical games, with 
intensity to the point of self-abandonment and mental relaxa- 
tion, breathing good air, stirring the blood, and building bone 
and muscle. There were no bef ore-school, afternoon and Sat- 
urday playgrounds, in charge of competent teachers. It will not 
suffice to have playgrounds established and conducted by the 
municipality, independent of the schools. They are too ex- 
pensive, they reach too few children, and they cannot be prop- 
erly correlated with the other phases of school work. Play as 
an element in education must become an integral and an im- 
portant part of the problem of child development. 

2. THE VOCATIONAL STUFFS IN THE ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOL COURSE OF STUDY. 

Superintendent Spaulding, in Chapters VIII and IX, has dealt 
with the school instruction as a whole; it is my work to deal 
with that part of it which relates to the so-called vocational 
studies. These I shall accordingly consider, under the headings 
of primary manual arts, manual training, sewing, cookery, draw- 
ing, music, and school gardening. 



172 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

(a) primary manual arts 

This should cover the manual work in the first four grades. 
Portland has as yet done nothing in this work. This I deem one 
of her most striking educational failures. It is difficult to think 
of a large city system in which the little folks are deprived of 
the privilege and advantages of working out, with their hands, 
simple concrete constructive problems. They should not be re- 
quired to "study," but rather allowed to do things. I under- 
stand that it is planned to introduce this work during the com- 
ing school year, and that there is an inclination to place it 
under the supervision of the drawing department. While the 
two fields touch at many points, and should be correlated, I 
doubt the wisdom of combining them under one supervision at 
this time, unless an assistant could be secured for the drawing 
department who has special qualifications and preparation for 
the work, and who would be allowed to develop the work, with- 
out hindrance. This I think would be difficult to accomplish. 
It would be much simpler and safer to appoint a supervisor of 
the work, who would be responsible to the superintendent only 
for its success. 

The outline and execution of a course in primary manual 
work should be guided by the following principles: 

1. The interest of the child must be aroused and sustained. 

2. It must be sufficiently versatile to appeal to the different 
personalities in the class-room. Not all children will be inter- 
ested in doing the same thing at the same time. 

3. It must avoid all "problems," conceived or invented to 
fit into a scheme of child development that happens at the time 
to find lodgment in the brain of the one making the course. 
Unsuspecting and unprotected children should not be imposed 
on by educational philosophers who have either forgotten their 
childhood or never had one. 

4. It must connect closely with the life and experience of 
the child outside of the class-room. 

5. It must correlate closely with his life and experience in 
school. This last principle is sometimes difficult to observe, as 
the child is so poor in both life and experiences in the class- 
room that nothing much of reality will correlate with them. 

6. Teachers must be prepared to present the work. For 
this preparation the supervisor should be responsible. In fact, 
the supervisor's greatest, if not her only responsibility, lies in 
the selection and preparation of her teachers. The practice of 
going from building to building to see that teachers are follow- 
ing courses of study and properly presenting the work outlined, 
which is a very common type of supervision in cities, is a waste 
of time, energy and salary. Teachers who are qualified will do 
the work best when supervised least; supervisors who cannot 
prove helpful should be displaced by those who can. 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 173 

This preparation should be inspirational, and should give 
the teacher a clear comprehension of and a correct attitude 
toward the problem, with suggestions only of how best to work 
it out. Too many explicit directions are bad alike for both 
teacher and pupils. 

This work has been well outlined and carried out in the 
Los Angeles schools, where its large educational value has been 
fully demonstrated. The outline of work used there may prove 
of value in outlining such work for Portland. 

(b) manual training. 

The Portland elementary schools offer manual training 
from the fifth through the eighth or ninth grades. 

Commendable Features. 
The work is to be commended for — 

1. The Buildings and Equipment. I have seen none better 
in this country. The plan of providing separate buildings, es- 
pecially designed for the work, has merit. Its only limitation 
lies in the expensive use of grounds already too small, with 
probably some inconvenience and additional expense in heating. 
These sloyd buildings are well planned to meet the needs and 
conveniences of the work, sufficiently removed from the main 
building to eliminate disturbance from noise, and give an air of 
completeness and business that is very desirable. 

2. The liberal provisions in sloyd centers, furnishing each 
grammar school with one. This is a distinct economy of the 
child's time, saved from traveling back and forth across the city. 
It also prevents certain undesirable practices and dissipations 
that are very apt to occur with a class of younger boys, unac- 
companied on these trips. One of its greatest advantages, how- 
ever, lies in the fact that it allows the individual school the 
full use of its manual training plant. 

A live, resourceful principal, working under an elastic and 
broad system of school administration, should save practically 
all of his boys to school and to themselves by assigning the 
"motor-sensed" to additional time in the shops. A very large 
percentage of the boys of upper grammar school age should 
spend at least one-half of their school day in manual work. 
The time of the school day should be extended, however. 

A shop that is at the exclusive command of the school can 
also be made to serve the needs of the school in repair work, 
school furniture, etc. This has an economic value of but minor 
importance, but a social and educational value of great signifi- 
cance. The boy who is doing something for society, in return 
for the advantages society is offering him, is the only type of 
boy who can be safely depended upon to play the game in a big, 
square way as a man. 



17-t SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

3. For the liberal allotment of time given the manual work. 

4. In the character of the work done in some centers. In 
either quality or kind I have not seen the work done, in some 
of these centers, surpassed. I have never seen poorer work done, 
however, than that done in some of the other centers. The 
unevenness in the teachers was surprising. 

Defects Observed. 

The work has some defects, which are characteristic of the 
Portland schools. 

1. In grades preceding the eighth the work is formal, ine- 
lastic, uniform, and prescriptive. Little or no account is taken 
of the individuality of either the pupil or the teacher. It does 
not allow freedom in purpose, variation from type, color, dec- 
oration, or finish of objects. It removes from both teachers and 
pupils the opportunity and responsibility for devising, originat- 
ing, and illustrating. It is limited in the variety of materials 
used. 

2. It does not closely connect with life outside the school 
room. Opportunity is not given for the construction of large 
pieces of work, useful in the home or in the boy's home activities 
and interests. 

3. It gives no recognition to work done independently by 
the boy away from school. 

4. It fails to correlate closely with other school work. 

These defects should be remedied by a revision of the work 
in the fifth, sixth and seventh years. The work in the Los 
Angeles schools, in these grades, embodies the suggestions for 
improvement made aboVe, and the outline of work followed 
there may prove helpful in strengthening the Portland work. 

(c) SEWING 

Portland makes liberal time allowance for sewing, which is 
under the supervision of one person, in both grades and high 
schools. The city is to be commended for the liberal equipment 
of sewing machines provided for the grade schools. The results 
attained in the high schools are excellent, but not commensurate 
with the time expended upon the work. By reorganizing the 
work, equally good results should be attained, at a saving of 
one-third in time. 

The elementary school child is required to give too much 
time and effort to exercise work perfecting the different 
stitches. This is following the older theory and practice of 
teaching the child the stitches, and leaving it to her to make 
the application, as against the more modern one that the girl can 
best acquire the practice and art of proper stitching through 
application to some useful article in which her interests are at 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 175 

the time centered. Portland is following the extreme of the 
older theory. Doubtless some others are extreme in their ad- 
vocacy of the more recent theory, but it is less destructive of the 
interest and joy the child finds in her work, without which two 
qualities school work lacks the essentials of education. It 
should be remembered that the purpose of sewing is the making 
of beautiful and useful things, and not the making of stitches, 
which should be taught only as a means to a larger end. Most 
girls love to sew if allowed to make things, but this joy and love 
may be killed if too much time is expended upon processes too 
remotely connected with the thing to be made. The making of 
simple garments should begin in the fifth grade, where sewing 
is introduced. In the Portland schools girls are not allowed 
to begin any real constructive work below the eighth grade. 
This delay is destructive of the girl's interest, and in particular 
wasteful of her time. 

Some suggestions for a revision of the sewing course might 
be given. The work for the elementary schools should include: 

1. Handwork, stitches, seams, hems, gathering, bands, darn- 
ing and patching, plackets, button holes and sewing on of but- 
tons and ornamental stitches, all applied to articles suitable to 
the lower grades. 

2. The study of textiles. 

3. Textile designs. 

4. History of articles used, such as needles, thimbles, scis- 
sors, etc. 

5. Laundering (in industrial centers). 

A sewing bag made will illustrate hemming, as will nap- 
kins. A pinball will illustrate gathering and top sewing. A 
laundry bag will illustrate cross-stitch designing. A two-breadth 
gingham apron, French seams; a duster bag, felled seams. Things 
from home should be brought for darning and patching. Arti- 
cles for home should be made, such as sofa pillow, table runner, 
table cover, or towels. Aprons, corset covers, and nightgowns 
may be made. Textiles should be studied, also trimmings. 
Proper laundry of different kinds of goods should be taught. 
The efficiency of the work in the Portland schools could be 
greatly increased by a revision of the work, along some such 
lines. The present model-work is uneconomical of time and 
effort. 

(d) cookery. 

The Portland schools do not introduce cookery into the 
course of study below the high schools. This defect is so serious 
that it is difficult to excuse it upon any grounds. Cookery 
should begin in the latter half of the sixth grade, certainly not 
later than the beginning of the seventh. Possibly no other sub- 
ject in the course quite equals cookery in importance for the 



176 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

average American girl, whether viewed from the developmental 
or utilitarian standpoints. In view of the large number of girls 
who never reach the high school, added to the fact that edu- 
cationally cookery belongs early in the course of study, its im- 
mediate introduction into the Portland grade schools is urged. 

It is highly desirable, for the reasons suggested in refer- 
ence to sloyd work, that each grade school should have a cook- 
ery room. For the installation of suitable equipment, includ- 
ing plumbing, the cost should range between $800 and $1000 per 
room. 

The work in the seventh grade should include lessons on 
measurements, dishes and utensils, combustions, water, food 
elements and principles, cereals, vegetables, milk, eggs, soups, 
meats, meat substitutes, and general cookery. In the eighth grade 
the work should include a study of leavening agents, sources 
of carbondioxide, fermentation, bread, exercises in practical 
cookery, hygiene and sanitation, and first aid to the injured. 

(e) drawing. 

The course in drawing prescribed for the elementary grades 
in the Portland schools closely resembles that of the average 
school system of the United States. It would be classified as a 
rational course, designed to interest the pupil and stimulate his 
activities along art lines. The same qualities that would rank 
it as rational and standard constitute its defects. Explicit di- 
rections are given in detail for each week's work, making no 
allowance for the exercise of initiative upon the part of the 
teacher, or contingencies that may arise in the school or home 
life of the child. These constitute two most important factors 
in all school work, and especially in drawing. The system that 
fails to take them into serious account is not truly educational. 
Only that course capable of broadest interpretation, and suffi- 
ciently flexible to allow of constant changes, is worthy. 

Portland's printed course in elementary drawing lays em- 
phasis on illustration, and this is commendable, but my observa- 
tion of the work leads me to suspect that in practice this part 
of the course is neglected. I saw no strong indications that 
children were encouraged to illustrate their conception of a 
story read from books of literature, or told by teachers; of their 
impressions of mother preparing a meal, of brother playing ball, 
of teacher calling school, or of the circus parade. Nor, in the 
upper grades, of boys designing or sketching kites, motor boats, 
automobiles, or of girls working on color, line and proportion 
found in a dress, or hat, or furnished room. The course fails 
to connect with life, and correlate with school work. 

In the first year formal instruction in color and landscape 
composition is given. This is an educational error. Such work 
should come later. Color work in the primary grades should be 
informal. Attempts at accuracy should be avoided, standards 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 177 

abandoned, and space relations ignored. The large amount of 
time devoted to color, figure, and landscape work should permit 
of greater picture study than seems to be done. 

Conventionalizing of nature forms is over-emphasized. The 
development of design exclusively from nature motifs is ques- 
tionable, either from the standpoint of artistic or educational 
principles. Too many subjects are undertaken in tiie upper 
grades, and too little time is given to object drawing and per- 
spective. 

In the seventh grade differentiation of courses should begin, 
and limited optional work, to meet the needs and desires of in- 
dividuals, should be allowed. Mechanical drawing for boys 
should be developed, and made optional with the free-hand. In 
properly organized work, adequately taught, boys should be able 
to do first-year high-school drawing in the seventh and eighth 
grades, and, as in the case in Portland, where so many boys 
remain in the grades through the ninth year, one and one-half 
years of strong mechanical drawing could be completed before 
reaching the tenth year of school life. Boys and girls, however, 
should not remain in the grade schools through the ninth year; 
this year should be placed elsewhere. 

The course for girls in the seventh and eighth grades should 
lead into costume designing and home decorating. A very large 
proportion of our girls in the upper grammar grades and in 
the high schools should be using a major part of their drawing 
time in this phase of the work. So-called fine art is relatively 
of minor importance, compared with home and civic art, — 
every-day art that enters into the lives of all. 

(f) music. 

I was not able, on account of limited time, to sufficiently 
witness the work of music in the Portland schools to form accu- 
rate judgment upon it. By inquiry, however, I learned that it is 
not sufficiently provided for in music rooms, musical instruments, 
or teachers and supervisors. Every elementary school should 
have a room especially fitted for the teaching of music. It 
should be supplied with a piano and some other musical instru- 
ments, and should be decorated with proper pictures to give it 
a musical atmosphere. In the larger schools there should be a 
teacher who is specially prepared for the work, and who gives 
all of her time to it. The smaller schools can sometimes be 
grouped, and one teacher assigned to two or more schools. Each 
school should have its choruses, glee clubs and orchestras. 
Among the music supervisors of a city there should be one or 
more devoting their entire time to the development of school 
orchestras. A city becomes musical, not by the number of 
musical stars who delight high-priced audiences, but by the 
number of her children who have opportunities to develop the 



178 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



native "love of music and acquire some skill in its art. The 
expense item is argued against the fuller expansion of the study 
of music in our schools, but the present method of teaching it, 
with limited facilities and poorly prepared teachers, is incom- 
parably more wasteful and expensive than the plan proposed. 

Portland, in common with most other cities in the United 
States, is making the fundamental pedagogic mistake in music 
teaching of expending all of her time and effort in repeating, 
copying, and reproducing the music composed by others, and 
wholly neglecting music composition. This failure is due to 
custom and a preconceived belief that the child cannot express 
its musical self. But it can, and as well as it can express any 
other emotion, or intellectual qualities. 

(g) school gardening. 

Some excellent work is being done by the children of Port- 
land in school and home gardens. It is being done, however, 
under the inspiration, supervision, and at the expense of out- 
side civic organizations. Their only connection with the schools 
is that they are doing for the school children the work that 
should be done by the schools. This arrangement can never be 
wholly satisfactory, and for the following reasons: 

1. It is expensive. To be sure the money to conduct it 
does not come from school funds, but any work accomplished 
£Tt an excessive cost must entail a loss to the community and to 
society. 

2. It cannot be as effectively done, due to the fact that 
civic organizations cannot or will not select people as well 
qualified to present it. 

3. It reaches a limited number of pupils, as must all activi- 
ties conducted outside the school organization. 

4. School gardening is a legitimate and necessary part of 
every city course of study, and should have a definite place 
and time given to it. The study should begin with the kinder- 
garten, and extend through the high school. No place is quite 
so much in need of school and home gardening as our modern 
cities. Work in home gardening should receive as much atten- 
tion, and be given equal credit, with work in school gardens. 

Supervisor of School Gardens Needed 

Portland should employ a supervisor of school gardens, 
with not less than three assistants. Their duties should include: 

1. The securing of privileges to use vacant lots adjoining 
school grounds. This can usually be done without cost, as it 
enhances the value of the ground to have it cultivated and kept 
clean. I recommend against the practice of paying rent for 
these lots for school purposes, as an unnecessary expense. If 
the policy of not paying rent is uniform, vacant lots in suf- 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 179 

ficient number will be given by property owners. The Board 
of Education should pipe for irrigation, if necessary, and fence 
property offered for a reasonable time, if fencing becomes a 
necessity. Usually, however, children can be taught to respect 
even the unprotected property of others; this of itself is a most 
valuable lesson for the average American child. 

2. The responsibility for a general suggestive outline of 
work. 

3. The issuing of frequent bulletins on the work, that will 
furnish information on the time and method of planting and 
cultivating vegetables, shrubbery, and flowers, for home and 
school gardens. 

4. The supervision and inspection of home gardens, and 
the recommending of the credits due those cultivating them. 

5. The holding of regular meetings for the discussion, with 
teachers, of the educational and agricultural problems involved. 
These meetings should be attended by at least one teacher from 
each building, who is assigned the responsibility for the work 
of her school. Such teacher should be given either free time, 
or financial consideration, or both, for this work. 

Most important of all, the supervisor should be the inspira- 
tion of the work, and should be able to educate the department 
and the public upon its scope, purposes, and importance. Such 
a person will probably command a good salary, but he will 
always be worth more to a city than he will receive from it. 
A number of American cities are employing, through their "Ad 
Clubs" or Chambers of Commerce, trained agricultural advisors 
for the farming community surrounding them. This may be good 
and profitable, but even better and more profitable would be 
agricultural advisors and teachers for the children in the schools. 

Portland is most favorably situated for this line of school 
activity. I doubt if there is any other one subject of equal 
importance to the city. A great city, located in the center of 
one of the greatest agricultural districts of the country, it be- 
comes her imperative duty to turn the attention of her children 
to the soil. Thousands of them are fitted by temperament and 
inclination to become successful farmers. This applies to girls 
and to boys alike. Probably no other vocation holds out so 
many chances of success to both men and women, within the 
next half century, as does the cultivation of the soil. More sig- 
nificant than this is the fact that no nation can hope for perma- 
nent success, security, and prosperity if the educational, social, 
and economic forces within her are drawing her boys and girls 
in excessive numbers away from the land. "Back to the soil" 
is a cry that has come none too early in this country, and to be 
effective it must center in our public schools. This is the prac- 
tical phase of the question. The aesthetic, ethical, and educa- 
tional are equally potent for the development of school and 
home gardens in American cities. 



180 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



3. THE VOCATIONAL STUDIES IN THE SECONDARY 
SCHOOLS. 

The Portland high schools are the regulation type of Ameri- 
can academic high schools, plus a limited amount of modern 
applied work. The nearest approach to vocational work is to 
be found in the commercial work, and second to this is the 
sewing for girls. The other manual work is more scholastic 
in its nature than practical. The indications of real life ele- 
ments are scant. 

The Principal and the School 

In conversation with the principal of one of the high schools 
I got the impression that he is beginning to see his problem, 
and will, if given opportunity by the administrative authorities, 
begin the development of some progressive, worth-while work. 
Uniformity in the high schools is carried to extremes. The first 
greatest need in the system is the placing of greater responsi- 
bility upon the principal, supporting him in rational changes 
he may undertake, and holding him for results. This plan would 
challenge the best powers of those occupying these positions. 
A failure to respond to the new opportunities and responsibili- 
ties would justify a change of principals. Great care should be 
exercised, however, in giving these men a fair trial. They 
should not only be allowed latitude in inaugurating new courses, 
and radically modifying old ones, but their recommendations 
on teachers should be practically decisive in their selection or 
rejection. It must also be remembered that these high schools 
cannot be brought to a reasonable degree of efficiency in a lim- 
ited time. The problem has so many important factors that it 
becomes large and complex. The principal of a large high 
school who succeeds in reorganizing his school and heading it 
right, without too much friction, is a big man, and has made 
a great contribution to the permanent welfare of his city and 
to the cause of education at large. 

Special Lines of Work Offered. 

The Portland high schools, in addition to the general in- 
struction, outlined at length in Chapter VIII, offer the follow- 
ing vocational work: 

(a) the commercial course 

The work offered follows the traditional lines of bookkeep- 
ing, penmanship, commercial arithmetic, stenography and type- 
writing, and commercial law, with somewhat more liberal em- 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 181 

phasis placed upon commercial geography, history and princi- 
ples of commerce, and economics than is to be found in the 
average commercial course. Two only of these high schools, 
the Lincoln and the Jefferson, offer the commercial work. 

As Portland's interests are largely commercial, the commer- 
cial work of her schools should be of the very best. It does 
not, however, excel in any particular. In comprehension of the 
problem, it is very mediocre. The presentation of the work, 
in places, is excellent; in spots it is inexcusably poor; and on 
an average it is only fair. The text-books used are standard, 
but they are entirely too religiously followed. The time allot- 
ment for the different subjects is reasonable; that given to 
stenography and typewriting is generous. The results, while 
fairly satisfactory, are not commensurate with the time given 
to the work. The work done should be done equally well at a 
saving of one-third in time, and time is an important element in 
business. Commercial students should not be so crowded in the 
earlier part of the work as to encourage superficiality or in- 
accuracy, and should be put under exacting tests for accuracy 
and speed before finishing the course. Profligacy of time is 
a common weakness in school work; commercial work offers 
an excellent opportunity to minimize the evil. 

The principal criticism to be passed upon the commercial 
work in the Portland high schools is its failure in points of 
contact' with real things. Little or no effort is being made to 
take advantage of the excellent opportunities offered to vitalize 
the work, by putting it in touch with the business phases of the 
school and the commercial life of the city. No opportunity 
is offered young people employed in business to supplement their 
experience by commercial work in the high schools. Classes 
should be organized for these people, and provision made for 
those who can attend school part time only. No preacademic 
requirements should be made of them. If necessary, classes at 
irregular hours should be organized for them. 

Pupils of the commercial department seemed to be as little 
familiar with and concerned about the city commercially as 
those of other departments. There was a general lack of in- 
telligence concerning the commercial enterprises in which Port- 
land men are engaged, and opportunities offered future business 
men in these fields. No special instruction was given on the 
qualities and qualifications necessary to meet the demands in 
business in general, or in special lines of business. The course 
of instruction, as presented, seemed to limit its purpose to pro- 
ducing young men and women who could take positions as 
subordinate accountants, clerks, or stenographers. No large con- 
ceptions seemed to dominate the work. 

No attempt, either, seemed to be made to follow these young 
people after leaving school, to discover what positions they se- 
cured, and what success they had in filling them. The commer- 



182 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

cial department also assumed no responsibility for the business 
of the school in handling, accounting for, and auditing the 
business transactions necessary in paid entertainments, athletics, 
class dues, society funds, cafeteria moneys, etc. The depart- 
ments were not even equipped with the regulation office furni- 
ture and fixtures for so-called business practice, much less for 
large business preparation. Portland seems to need more com- 
mercial teachers who are alive and in intelligent and sympa- 
thetic touch with the great commercial movements of their 
own city; teachers who have energy, courage, comprehension, 
and vision, and whose suggestions and recommendations will be 
heeded. 

In addition to the regular work offered in bookkeeping 
and stenography and typewriting, advanced classes should be or- 
ganized, covering a year's additional work. These should be op- 
tional with other subjects, and be given full credit. These ad- 
vanced classes in stenography and typewriting could do all of 
the clerical work of the school, and much for the different de- 
partments of the city schools. In bookkeeping they could han- 
dle all of the school business. Pupils from these classes should 
be sent out into the city, when possible, to do part-day work 
for business and professional men. This would give the school 
an opportunity to discover the defects of the individual pupil 
and of the work he did in school, and help in remedying both. 
This outside work should receive full recognition in school 
credits. 

(b) the work in drawing 

Drawing in the Portland high schools is a continuation and 
development of that work in the grades, with but slight modi- 
fications. It possesses the same merits, and in general has the 
characteristic limitations. The work in the high schools lacks 
support, both in equipment and teachers. Upon the basis of 
what high schools, of Portland's enrollment, should have, they 
are supplied with about one-half of what should be required 
to meet the needs of good work in drawing. If the present 
facilities meet the full demand for the work, upon the part of 
pupils, it is probably due to failure in offering courses that ap- 
peal to them. 

Work in materials should be liberally enlarged. Most de- 
signs made by pupils should be worked out in the materials for 
which they are designed. To dream dreams is an excellent 
thing, provided they may be brought to pass. The habit of 
working on problems, in our public schools, that are never solved 
in the terms of human experiences and human life, constitutes 
the greatest weakness and danger to future generations. 

The work in clay overemphasizes modeling, to the neglect 
of pottery. Modeling has a life significance for a very limited 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 183 

number of people, while pottery enters into the lives of all. 
Pottery has been a major factor in the art standards of the 
race, while modeling has been a very minor one. 

fabric designing should be increased, and weaving and 
metal work should be introduced. 

Drawing offers one of the finest of opportunities for taking 
the school into the home, and one of the school's greatest func- 
tions is to go into the home. Portland high schools should have 
a distinctive, well organized, and broad four-years' course for 
girls in home planning, decorating and furnishing, costume de- 
signing, and study of fabrics. Suggestions of these studies are 
found scattered throughout the regular course in drawing, but 
they are too widely distributed, too lacking in coherence, and 
loo little related to be of value to the girl in the problems she 
will have to meet in her life work. 

The Portland schools also offer opportunity for serious, 
coherent, and worthy courses in cartooning, and designing and 
illustrating for advertising. It is argued that this work is tech- 
nical, and belongs to a technical high-school, but every tech- 
nical high-school should have in its courses enough of the lib- 
eral to put its pupils in sympathetic touch with the universal 
principles and problems, and every cultural high-school must 
teach enough of the applied work to give its students a grip on 
the mighty forces at play in modern civilization. The high 
school, after all, can reduce its problems to two: (a) to help 
its pupils to find a worth}' center of interests, and (b) to en- 
able them to work these interests out into deeds. 

The mechanical drawing offered in the Portland schools is 
quite elementary, and should be done in the grammar grades, 
allowing the pupils who continue the work in high schools to 
go into the mathematical or technical phases of the subject. 
There is hardly any limit to what high school boys can do in 
either, if given time for it, and if the work is properly developed 
and presented. On the technical side, boys can attain an earning 
skill in architectural, civil, and mechanical drafting and tracing. 
Unless taught by those qualified to present the subject, how- 
ever, the work had best not be undertaken. 

(C) SHOP EQUIPMENT, AND ITS DISTRIBUTION 

The extent to which industrial work shall be carried in in- 
dividual high schools of a city system is both an economic and 
an educational problem. The cost of shop equipment, supplies 
used, and teachers' salaries is heavy, where the work is fully 
organized. Whether it is best to fully equip one school in the 
system, and allow all pupils desiring the work to attend this 
school, or to partially equip each of the schools, and offer the 
advantages of shop work to pupils of all schools, is a question 
of some importance. On the side of economy and efficiency 



184 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

of those taking the work in one fully equipped school, the former 
plan would be adopted. This would be done, however, at cer- 
tain important educational sacrifices. The high school selected, 
when left to the option of parents and pupils, is influenced 
fully as much by geographical and social reasons as by educa- 
tional advantages. Where educational reasons determine the 
choice of a school there is always the probability of mistakes 
in the choice. Insufficient opportunity has been afforded the 
boy to determine his aptitudes and powers. Many good me- 
chanics, engineers, and farmers are being spoiled through lack 
of opportunity in school to discover their ability in these lines. 
The cosmopolitan high-school has a marked advantage in Ameri- 
can education. A third and a more nearly ideal plan is to estab- 
lish one fully-equipped technical high-school in the system, 
and organize the others into cosmopolitan high-schools, with 
simpler shop equipment assigned to meet the requirements of 
treating manual training as a developmental subject. In a school 
of this kind the resourceful practical teacher will find it possi- 
ble to do much constructive practical work. I recommend this 
plan for the Portland high schools. If adopted, the equipment 
in the two schools now offering shop work should be strength- 
ened to meet the needs of a regular cosmopolitan high-school. 
Under the plan now followed the facilities and courses are 
markedly inadequate. Basement rooms are used, and in one of 
the buildings these are poorly lighted and ventilated. The wood- 
shop equipment is incomplete, and in one building is antiquated. 
There is a lack of any dignified and effective attempt at forge 
and machine shop equipment. The small percentage of boys 
electing the work is noticeable, and a general unbusiness-like 
air pervades the manual training rooms. One gets the impres- 
sion that manual training is looked upon as an addendum to, 
rather than an integral and. vital part of, the school. It is fail- 
ing to make itself felt as one of the virile active factors in high 
school work and life. This too despite the fact that Portland 
has some good strong men handling the work. 

(d) domestic art 

Sewing is on an excellent footing in the Portland high 
schools, and the kind and quality of the work produced would 
be creditable to any city. To attain these results very liberal 
time allowance has been given, and excellent equipment fur- 
nished. Some one in the schools has been influential in caring 
for the interests of domestic art. The character of the work 
has had a marked effect upon the large number of girls choos- 
ing it as one of their optional subjects. 

(e) domestic science 

Domestic science is also well provided for and very credit- 
ably done in the Portland high schools. A year of domestic 



CHAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 185 

chemistry, and a year of household mathematics, should be added 
to the course. 

4. THE SCHOOL OF TRADES. 

The Portland School of Trades is one of the best of its 
kind, and is doing excellent work. Work in the machine shop, 
pattern-making, electrical construction, mechanical drawing, and 
sewing deserves especial commendation. Considering the fact 
that Portland is largely a commercial city, and that its School 
of Trades is so poorly adapted either in location or building 
to the work undertaken, the enrollment is much above the aver- 
age in schools of this type throughout the country. Despite 
the high quality of work done, however, the Portland School 
of Trades is not effectively meeting the problem presented to 
it. This failure is due to: 

(a) The location and character of the building in which 
the school is conducted. These are such as to discourage those 
in need of the work offered from attending. 

(b) The reluctance of parents in sending their children 
to any school which has preparation for manual work as its 
aim. The old pernicious fallacy of attaining an education to 
escape work is yet strong, and widely distributed. 

(c) Portland is not, and does not promise soon to become, 
an industrial city. 

(d) The school itself lacks imagination, breadth of vision, 
and spiritual life. There is lack of music, dramatics, and pub- 
lic speaking. The cultural phase of education receives entirely 
too little attention in it. No other type of school is so greatly 
benefited by, nor responds so readily to these, as a vocational 
school. Such work should not be made a serious part of trade 
school work, but a very effective and interesting part of it. 

For these and other reasons, I do not believe Portland can 
develop a great trade school, or one that can do the work that 
should be accomplished. Other larger cities and greater in in- 
dustrialism have failed to establish effective trade schools. 

I recommend, therefore, the disposal of the present trade 
school plant, and the establishment of a first-class technical 
or polytechnic high school, with the present trade courses of- 
fered as a part of it. This would result in greatly enlarging 
the field of work. If another block of land adjoining the Lin- 
coln high school were secured for this, it would have many 
advantages. It would bring the technical and literary students 
in touch with the trade pupils, and give the trade pupils the 
literary and social advantages of the technical school. There 
is the great and constant danger of the trade courses being 
neglected and lost if operated in a technical school. This can 
be avoided only by the choice of a principal who sees the whole 
field, and who will select skilled tradesmen to develop the trade 



186 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



work. I should not make this recommendation for a city the 
size of Portland, with highly developed industries, or one that 
promised to become an industrial city within a reasonable length 
of time. 

5. AN AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL. 

An agricultural high school should be organized, with ample 
grounds and equipment. This is one of the most important 
suggestions made for vocational work in the Portland schools. 
The school should be distinctly an agricultural school. Its sci- 
ence, art, shop work, home economics, economic and social 
problems, and mathematics should be developed from an agri- 
cultural standpoint. The danger to be avoided in organizing 
such schools lies in the selection of a principal and corps of 
teachers, who, because of previous training, will make the school 
cultural and academic at heart, and tolerate agriculture as a side 
issue. The cost of the school will depend largely on the loca- 
tion and size of the site, and the character of buildings pro- 
vided. The site should include not less than fifty acres, prefer- 
ably more. The buildings, except the central administration 
building, should be characteristic of the farm, and hence need 
not be expensive. The courses offered should include truck 
farming, grain and hay-raising, stock raising, dairying, farm 
implements, farm accounting, orcharding, soil analysis, distribu- 
tion of farm products, household economics, farm architecture, 
and forestry. 

6. SUMMARY, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

Portland makes the following provisions for vocational edu- 
cation in her school system: 

1. School gardening, conducted under a civic organization, 
independent of the system. 

2. Drawing, commencing with the 4th grade, and extend- 
ing through the high school. 

3. Manual work for boys, beginning in the 5th grade as 
sloyd, and continuing in the high school as general woodshop 
and machine shop work. 

4. Academic mechanical drawing, in the high school. 

5. Sewing, beginning with the 5th grade, and carried into 
the high school. 

6. Cooking, taught only in the high school. 

7. Commercial work, offered only in the high school. 

8. Trade work in carpentry, cabinet making, pattern mak- 
ing, machine shop work, electrical construction, architectural 
drawing, mechanical drawing, printing, cooking, sewing and 
millinery, offered in the Portland School of Trades. 

With the exception of commercial work and cooking and 
sewing, in the high schools, and work in the School of Trades, 



C HAP. X. OFFERING IN VOCATIONAL STUDIES 187 

the applied work mentioned is more cultural and academic than 
vocational in character and purpose. 

The following changes are, I believe, necessary to put voca- 
tional work in Portland on the most efficient basis: 

1. Primary manual arts should be introduced into the first, 
second, and third grades, and the work in manual training in 
the upper grades made much less formal. 

2. Cooking should be introduced in the 6th, not later than 
the 7th grade. 

3. The elementary course in sewing should be modified to 
include more garment making, and less exercise work. 

4. The work in music, and the training of the powers of 
expression, need much amplification. 

5. The Board of School Directors should assume full finan- 
cial and educational responsibility for school gardening, and 
place the work under an efficient supervisor, with sufficient help 
to carry it out. 

6. Five or more intermediate schools should be organized, 
to cover the 7th, 8th and 9th grade work. These should offer 
distinct courses in commercial and industrial work, and act as 
prevocational schools. Some of them should specialize in voca- 
tional branches, as indicated earlier. One, at least, should offer 
half-day courses from 9 to 12 a.m., or from 1 to 4:30 p.m., for 
pupils who must earn something while attending school. Courses 
of this kind might well be extended through the tenth year. 

7. If the intermediate school plan is not adopted, freehand 
drawing in the 7th and 8th grades should specialize, to meet 
the needs of girls, in costume designing, home decorating and 
furnishing, pottery, and leather and metal work; and mechanical 
drawing should be offered to boys. The drawing in the high 
schools needs redirection and additional facilities for work. 

8. Vocational work for girls should receive a much greater 
expenditure of time, thought, and money than it now does. 

9. A vocational-guidance director should be appointed for 
the Portland schools, whose duties should include — (a) A study 
of the industrial and commercial conditions of Portland and its 
environment, to discover the trend of commercial and indus- 
trial development; (b) Through communication with business 
men, to determine what the schools could do better to fit young 
people to become efficient in different lines of work; (c) To ad- 
vise boys and girls in requirements, necessary preparation, and 
prospects in different vocations; (d) To supervise the organiza- 
tion of vocational courses; and (e) To help in the selection of 
vocational teachers. 

10. The commercial courses in the high schools need re- 
organizing, and in particular need to be much more closely con- 
nected with the business life of the city. In a city such as Port- 



188 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

land, where the business life is of such fundamental importance, 
the commercial work ought distinctly to excel. 

11. In a city, too, with such important agricultural sur- 
roundings and interests, there should be a first-class agricul- 
tural high school, well provided for practical instruction. 

12. The Portland School of Trades should be merged into 
a technical high school, retaining the trade courses. 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 189 



Chapter XI 

NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS AND EXPANSIONS OF THE 
SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

(Francis.) 

1. A FUNDAMENTAL REORGANIZATION. 

To enable the city to do the best and the most for its children, 
the school system should be reorganized, and into the following 
units: 

(a) Kindergartens. 

(b) Elementary Schools. 

(c) Intermediate Schools. 

(d) High Schools. 

(a) kindergartens 

The kindergarten should give instruction to those below the 
age of six, and this work should merge naturally and gradually 
into that of the first grade. This can best be brought to pass 
through a supervisor, in charge of both kindergarten and first 
grade work. The kindergarten work should be made to ap- 
proach that of the first grade, but more especially should the 
first grade work be modified to more nearly meet that of the 
kindergarten. 

(r) elementary schools 

The elementary school grades should cover six years of 
school work, and set for themselves the accomplishment of two 
purposes: 

(1) To furnish a rational, normal environment, in which 
the preadolescent child may live and grow without fear, oppres- 
sion, or repression, for six years of his life. Reauty, faith, joy, 
interest, and play should characterize it all. He should imagine, 
sing, dance, laugh, play, act, draw, construct with his hands, 
sow, cultivate and reap, imitate, love, breathe, and eat. 

(2) Incidentally he should attain efficiency in reading the 
printed page, mastering the fundamentals — addition, subtraction, 
multiplication and division — in number combinations, learn to 
write a legible free hand, and to spell with a reasonable degree 
of accuracy. In acquiring these attainments, however, his little 
mind must not be befogged by dead academic stuff, nor his 
buoyant spirits depressed with fear, envy, hate, duty, or re- 
sponsibility. "Ought" may be the greatest word in the English 
vocabulary, but it does not belong to childhood. 



190 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

(C) THE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL 

This should be composed of seventh, eighth, and ninth grade 
pupils, and should set for itself the solution of the problems of 
early adolescence. There probably is no more important time 
in a child's life than this, and the elements at play require 
especial study by sincere, earnest, liberal, and humanistic peo- 
ple. The only rational time for a radical break in the school 
life of an individual is when he is leaving childhood and enter- 
ing into manhood. The present radical changes between gram- 
mar school and high school, and between high school and col- 
lege, are artificial, hence wasteful and destructive. 

Character of the Intermediate School 

In courses of study offered, the intermediate school should 
closely resemble the high school. In the manner of presenting 
the work in the seventh and the low eighth grades, the best 
grammar school methods should be closely followed. The tran- 
sition from the elementary school into the intermediate school 
should be made gradual, and natural. 

Location 

The intermediate schools should be in different sections of 
the city, and in the center of a group of elementary schools, to 
accommodate the children finishing the sixth grade in these 
schools. To meet the needs in Portland I should think seven 
intermediate schools would be necessary. Possibly the geography 
of the school district is such as to require eight. In a district 
so extensive as Portland, presenting some problems that are 
rural, it will be necessary, for a while at least, to carry the 
seventh and eighth grades in a few of the outlying schools. It 
would not be practicable, therefore, to undertake to wholly elimi- 
nate the ninth year from the high schools. In a city growing 
so rapidly as Portland the ninth-year pupils new to the city 
will always be sufficient in number to justify continuing ninth- 
year work in one or two of the city high schools. From the na- 
ture of the work in the intermediate schools such pupils would 
sustain a loss in convenience and time if compelled to adjust 
themselves to the work. 

Buildings 

Ideally these should be constructed as intermediate schools. 
In such case they should be built according to high school plans, 
and practically as high schools. Provisions for science work 
would be limited to rooms and equipment for general elementary 
science or physiography, and shop work would not extend be- 
yond the woodshops. In one or two of these schools, however, 
provision should be made for elementary trade courses, and 
rooms provided and equipped for printing, plumbing, electrical 



CHAP. XI. NEED ED REORGANIZATIONS 191 

wiring, automobile repairing, book binding, and other trades in 
which there is good local demand for men and women. A cook- 
ery room in some one of these schools, depending upon the type 
of children attending, should be especially fitted for teaching the 
chef trade. 

History, languages, English, mathematics, commercial work, 
drawing, music, public speaking and entertainments, play 
grounds and gymnasiums, libraries, cafeterias, etc., in interme- 
diate schools will require the same kind, although in some cases 
not so extensive, facilities as given to high schools. 

When funds are not available for the erection of new in- 
termediate buildings, it is often practicable to convert a gram- 
mar school into an intermediate school. Of the eight inter- 
mediate schools in Los Angeles, seven were established in what 
were formerly grammar school buildings. Certain changes and 
additions will be necessary, such as enlarging and more fully 
equipping sloyd rooms for shops (Portland's grammar school 
manual training buildings could easily be modified to meet such 
requirements); plumbing, wiring and equipping a room for 
general science; providing an auditorium, when not already 
provided in the building; and other changes that will be needed. 
It cost Los Angeles, on an average, approximately $20,000 a 
building to convert her grammar schools into intermediate 
schools. The most expensive changes, however, would have 
been equally necessary to make these buildings ideal grammar 
school plants. 

Cost 

The cost per pupil in the intermediate school should reach 
a figure approximately half way between that of the grammar 
school and the high school. If grammar school education costs 
$40 per pupil and high school $80, the intermediate cost should 
be about $60. 

Intermediate School Purposes 

In addition to the general educational purpose, the inter- 
mediate schools should set for themselves the following prob- 
lems: 

1. To enable boys and girls to discover their powers, 
aptitudes, and likes; or at least to discover some of them. 
Through the development of these, they may be led to discover 
other and better ones. The first and most important thing for 
a child, in early adolescence, is to become interested in some- 
thing that will call out his best qualities and powers, and develop 
his staying habits. Whether he permanently follows these inter- 
ests or not is of minor importance. His own reaction toward 
them at the time is of most concern. The nonchalant indiffer- 



1*2 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

ence of the average seventh and eighth grade child toward his 
work is a menace to his own success, and to the stability of the 
society of which he is to become a part. 

2. To prepare the pupil for high school work. It is a fact 
patent to every practical student of our educational systems that 
this is not being successfully done in the average grade school. 
In his attitude toward school problems; in his lack of sustained 
studious habits; in his practice of moving rapidly and impa- 
tiently from one study to another, and superficial way of han- 
dling all; in his inability to think consecutively, or independently, 
on any subject; — our grammar school boys and girls are laying 
foundations that must be repaired, or destroyed and rebuilt, be- 
fore they can hope to become worthy students. 

3. To bridge the unnecessary gap between the grammar 
and the high schools. The marked school death rate in the 
seventh and eighth grades, to which Portland forms no excep- 
tion (see Fig. 8, page 150), can be accounted for by subject 
matter in the courses of study, methods of presentation, and gen- 
eral school conditions not congenial to early adolescence. In 
the first year of the high school, where it is serious, it must be 
accounted for by the wholly new and foreign conditions which 
the child meets on entering, and for which he has had no ade- 
quate preparation. The intermediate school, through the adop- 
tion of modified high-school methods, prepares him to meet 
high-school conditions. 

4. To economize the child's time. This can be done only 
through elimination by substitution of both subjects and subject 
matter, and by the greater interest upon the part of pupils that 
will stimulate greater activity. Under a wise organization of 
the system, and proper organization and presentation of courses 
of study, boys and girls should reach the tenth year of schooling 
with at least a year saved in time. The practice, so common, 
of dawdling away the time and interests of children is little 
short of criminal. 

5. To organize, guide, and wisely develop the social in- 
stincts of the child. There is no other time in his life when 
his social instincts are so important and in such great need of 
care and training. The grade school of mixed childhood and 
adolescence offers limited opportunity for this work, and the 
home either does not know enough or refuses to assume responsi- 
bility for it. It is safe to estimate that 75 per cent of the social 
difficulties met with in the high school originated when the 
pupil was in the grade schools. Our public schools can no longer 
refuse to recognize the power of social instinct in the education 
and development of the child. 

6. To conserve the interests of the child not going to high 
school. This is probably the most important problem the in- 
termediate school has for solution. It is the most difficult, and 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 193 

effects a large number of boys and girls. If properly worked 
out, it will result in a large percentage of these boys and girls 
entering high school, at the close of their intermediate course. 
Lack of interest in work offered is more responsible for pupils 
leaving school than are economic conditions. What are our 
boys and girls prepared to do upon leaving the eighth grade? is 
a common query, although the answer is well known to the ques- 
tioner, and to all others. The intermediate schools must prepare 
such young people to catch hold somewhere in the great com- 
plex social, industrial, and commercial world into which they 
pass upon leaving school. No other plan than the establishment 
of the intermediate school seems feasible in the accomplishment 
of this result. 

Advantages 

Among the advantages not evident in the purposes cf the 
intermediate school the following might be stated: 

1. Equalization of opportunities between the grammar and 
high schools. Present discriminations are strikingly illustrated 
by the difference in cost per pupil. That there will be some 
increase in cost as the pupil advances in his course is to be 
understood, but that it should cost two to two and one-half times 
as much to educate a high school pupil as it does to educate a 
grammar grade pupil is absurd, and should not be endorsed by 
educators nor tolerated by the public. 

Development of the American high school in the middle 
West and West within recent years has been remarkable, and 
the enrollment has grown proportionately with the expenditure 
upon buildings, equipment, enlargement of courses, and salaries 
of teachers. The development of the elementary schools, while 
important, has not kept pace with that of high schools. In the 
upper grades the progress has been less than anywhere else. 
We have reached a place in our educational history when greater 
attention is demanded for these upper years. 

2. The logical development of vocational work. The in- 
termediate school is the most effective means yet proposed for 
working out the vocational problem in this country. Distinctly 
prevocational schools, established in limited numbers by some 
American' cities, are scarcely touching the great prevocational 
problem, nor can they. Practically every American boy and 
girl must be exposed to both manual and mental activities, and 
experiment with both, before anyone, including himself, can 
determine his natural aptitude. Vocational guidance that does 
not offer opportunities in courses of study, found in the school 
system and available to all, is, at least, a partial failure. Partial 
might be omitted from the description of most of this work. 
Nor will it do to postpone this experimenting with a child, or 
have him experiment with himself to find his bent, until he 
reaches high school. The work should begin with adolescence 



194 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

and be continued into the high school. The wise and natural 
distribution of population into avocations, for which they are 
suited and prepared, is one of the greatest problems of the 
schools and of the age. 

3. It offers to pupils the advantages of departmental work, 
which cannot be worked out with the same degree of efficiency 
in a regular grammar school. 

4. It gives some options to pupils as to subjects studied. 

5. It simplifies the problem with repeaters, since the child 
is required to go over, the second time, only that work in which 
he has made a failure. 

6. It results in keeping a large number of pupils in school 
for an additional year. Desire to remain and graduate with 
their class, or to carry a study to the point where it may be 
used in an earning capacity, will keep in school a majority of 
those who would otherwise drop out at completion of the eighth 
grade. In Portland, with the compulsory period extending up 
to the sixteenth birthday, such schools would offer splendid op- 
portunities for usefulness. 

7. It postpones the time one year when the child will be 
required to cross the city to reach high school. This saves 
carfare, time, and sometimes character. 

For the sake of increasing the efficiency of its schools, I 
strongly hope that Portland will early establish the intermediate 
school as a part of its educational organization. 

Teachers 

As the work in intermediate schools is departmental, es- 
pecially trained teachers should be employed. Their education 
should be as thorough and comprehensive as that of high-school 
teachers, and their salaries should be the same as paid to high- 
school teachers. The strongest teachers in the department 
should be assigned to intermediate work. It requires a better 
teacher to successfully teach seventh-grade pupils than to teach 
twelfth-grade. Only the big teacher is simple enough in her 
presentation to be understood by younger children. The teacher 
of intermediate grades will be better fitted for her work if she 
has had experience in grade schools. So would high-school 
teachers. Teachers must be brought to see the importance of in- 
termediate work, and be put in sympathy with it. This is not 
always easy to accomplish, despite the fact that the truth of it 
must be self-evident. Teachers who would have their import- 
ance measured by the grade in which they work should begin 
with the first grade if they would be greatest. The best princi- 
pals of the city should be placed over these schools, and their 
salaries should approximate those of high-school principals. The 
initial difficulties of reorganization are greatest, and call for 
the strongest men and women. No system should undertake to 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 195 

establish intermediate schools with mediocre teachers. It is 
better to establish them one at a time, or to wait. 

Opposition 

If the plan of organizing intermediate schools is adopted, 
both the Superintendent and the Board of School Directors must 
be prepared to meet certain opposition, to which they must turn 
a deaf ear. Every new movement for the improvement of our 
educational system, as in other affairs of human life, must be 
prepared to meet with opposition from those who do not under- 
stand the nature of the proposal, or whose personal and selfish 
interests are touched. Opposition to the intermediate schools will 
come chiefly from three sources: 

1. From principals of elementary schools who are not chosen 
for the new positions, and who object to losing "the pride of 
their schools." One would sometimes be led to think that schools 
existed to glorify principals, instead of to do the best possible 
for the children in them. Under the Portland salary schedule, 
there would probably be some opposition from principals who 
objected to having classes taken from their schools. This would 
soon settle itself in such a growing city, as other classes would 
soon take the places of those removed. 

2. Opposition from teachers in upper grades, who are not 
qualified to remain in intermediate schools, and who would re- 
gard the dignity of their position as lowered if put into lower 
grades. The Portland salary schedule, with its greatest pay for 
upper-grade work, would cause such teachers to suffer a de- 
crease in salary, unless adjustments were made, and this would 
naturally cause further objection. 

3. Opposition from parents who have children below the 
seventh grade, attending a school which was rebuilt for inter- 
mediate school purposes. In such cases it is sometimes wise to 
organize a primary school of the first, second, and possibly third 
grades, either in the same building or in temporary buildings lo- 
cated on the school grounds, or in the immediate neighborhood. 
In most cases these can be gradually abandoned, unless distances 
are such as to work a hardship on the little folks compelled to 
attend another school. Opposition will disappear soon after the 
intermediate school is in operation. The enthusiasm of children 
attending the school, and the pride of the neighborhood in it, 
will be strong enough to overcome the first dissatisfaction of 
those who opposed it. 

Courses of Study 

Courses offered should, in the main, meet the requirements 
for carrying out the purposes stated. They should be wide 
enough in range to somewhere grip the interests of every child. 



196 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



They should offer high-school work in languages, commercial 
subjects, drawing, music, mathematics, science, home economics, 
history, literature, and shop work. 

Broadly speaking, the intermediate school is a high school 
moved to the seventh grade, with due regard for the limited ex- 
periences and training of the child of twelve or thirteen years 
of age. 

To give a clearer idea as to the nature of the intermediate 
school, and to show better its advantages over the grade school 
as an educational institution, outlines for a general commercial 
and a vocational course are presented in the table following on 
this page. Reference should also be made to the outlines for 
literary and pre-vocational intermediate-school courses, sub- 
mitted by Superintendent Spaulding, and reproduecd in Chapter 
IX, pages 196-198. 

Table 21 
Courses of Study for Intermediate Schools 

I. GENERAL COURSE 

Seventh Year 






Required Subjects 




Elective Subjects 


English 


5 


Select one of the following: 


Arithemtic 


5 


French 5 


Geography, B 7 


5 


German 5 


History, A 7 


5 


Spanish 5 


Physical Training 


1 


Latin 5 


Music 


2 


Bookkeeping 5 


Drawing 


2 


Stenography 5 


Penmanship 


2 




Manual Training: 




(Note: Two languages to be 


Girls, Cooking 


2 


selected only by permission.) 


Sewing 


2 




Boys, Woodwork 


4 






Eightl 


i Year 


Required Subjects 




Elective Subjects 


English 


5 


Select two of the following: 


History and Civics 


5 


French 5 


Physical Training 


2 


German 5 


Oral English, B8 


2 


Spanish 5 


Music, A 8 


2 


Latin 5 


Physiology and Hygiene 


2 


Bookkeeping 5 


Manual Training: 




Stenography 5 


Girls, Cooking 


2 


Mathematics: 


Sewing 


2 


Arithmetic, B 8 5 


Boys, Woodwork 


4 


Algebra, A 8 5 
Drawing: Freehand or Me- 
chanical 5 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 



197 



Ninth Year 



Required Subjects 

English 

Physical Training 

Music or Oral English 



Elective Subjects 



Select three of the following: 
French, German, Spanish, or 

Latin 5 

Bookkeeping 5 

Stenography 5 

Algebra 5 

Commercial Arithmetic 5 

Ancient History 5 

General Science 5 
Manual Training: 

Girls, Cooking 5 

or Sewing 5 

Boys, Woodwork 5 
Drawing: Freehand or 

Mechanical 5 



II. COMMERCIAL COURSE 









Sei 


>enth Year 


Required 


Si 


bjects 






Elective Subjects 


English 








5 


Pupils may select one of the 


Arithmetic 








5 


following: 


Bookkeeping 








5 


French 5 


Stenography 








5 


German 5 


Penmanship 








2 


Spanish 5 


Geography, B 7 








5 


Music and Manual Training 6 


History, A 7 








5 




Physical Traini 


ig 






1 





Eighth Year 



Required Subjects 

English 

History and Civics 

Bookkeeping 

Stenography 

Penmanship 

Physiology and Hygiene 

Physical Training 



Elective Subjects 
Select one of the following: 

French 5 

German 5 

Spanish 5 
Oral English, B8; Music, 

A 8, and Manual Training 6 



198 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 





Ninth 


Year 


Required Subjects 




Elective Subjects 


English 


5 


Select two of the following: 


Commercial Arithmetic 


5 


French 5 


Bookkeeping 


5 


German 5 


Stenography 


5 


Spanish 5 


Physical Training 


2 


Music or Oral English and 

Manual Training 6 
General Science 5 
Algebra 5 
Penmanship 5 



III. VOCATIONAL COURSE 

Seventh Year 



Required Subjects 
Same as General Course. 



Elective Subjects 
Same as General Course. 





Eightl 


Year 


Required Subjects 




Elective Subjects 


English 


5 


Select one of the following: 


Manual Training: 




U. S. History 5 


Girls, Cooking 


5 


French 5 


Sewing 


5 


German 5 


Boys, Woodwork 


10 


Spanish 5 


Drawing 


5 


Bookkeeping 5 


Girls, Freehand 




Algebra 5 


Boys, Mechanical 






General Science (includes 




Hygiene) 


5 




Physical Training 


2 





Ninth Year 



Required Subjects 
English 
Manual Training: 

Girls, Cooking 
or Sewing 

Boys, Woodwork 
Drawing 

Girls, Freehand 

Boys, Mechanical 
General Science (including 

Hygiene) 

Boys, Elem. Physics 

Girls, Elem. Chemistry 
Physical Training 



Elective Subjects 



Select one of the following: 





Ancient History 


5 


10 


French 


5 


10 


German 


5 


10 


Spanish 


5 


5 


Bookkeeping 


5 




Algebra 


5 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 199 

(d) high schools 

In addition to reorganizing the high-school work and the 
School of Trades, along the lines suggested in Chapters IX and 
X, the school authorities should keep in mind plans for ulti- 
mately extending the high school to include a thirteenth and 
fourteenth year. The thirteenth is already provided, in name. 
For this work good courses, covering a wide range, and com- 
parable to the first two years of college work, should be provided 
to meet the needs— 

1. Of those who are intending to go to college: These may 
complete at home their junior college work, which is more 
nearly high school than college work, do it under better condi- 
tions of instruction, and save expense to parents and the public. 
This would result in a greatly increased college attendance, since 
two years away from home and home influences, at heavy ex- 
pense, is not nearly half so long or so expensive as four years. 
It would also result in many remaining two years longer in the 
schools. The high schools, with their wide range of subjects, 
hold out strong inducements to graduates who would not attend 
school longer under less favorable circumstances. 

2. Of those who do not intend to go to college: With the 
introduction of the intermediate and the extension of the high 
school, practically eight years of high-school work is offered at 
home. This makes it possible to establish courses of study, 
complete within themselves, and of a character that their com- 
pletion will fit young people to give a good account of them- 
selves in the industrial and technical vocations. 

2. TYPES OF ADDITIONAL SCHOOLS NEEDED. 

In addition to a fundamental reorganization of the school 
system, along the lines just outlined, to enable the schools better 
to meet the educational needs of the children of the city, the 
Board of School Directors should also add to the present school 
system a number of special-type schools, for the purpose of 
better meeting the needs of classes of children for whom the 
present grade schools are at best poorly adapted. In Chapter 
XIV, subdivision 10, Dr. Terman has treated, in some detail, the 
need of special classes for deaf, blind, crippled, stammerers, 
backward, and feeble-minded children, so that these will not be 
considered here. The remaining special-t3 r pe schools which I 
would recommend are: 

(a) the ungraded room 

Portland's scheme of grading, classifying, and promoting 
pupils, if effectively worked out, should minimize the need of 
ungraded rooms. I was not as favorably impressed with the 
results of the scheme, however, as with the scheme itself. Even 



2D0 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

though it could be effectually worked out, there would still re- 
main an important percentage of boys and girls sufficiently ir- 
regular to require a teacher especially qualified to discover and 
develop them. Experience is an important requisite for such a 
teacher, but a keen perception of human nature, and broad sym- 
pathy with human qualities, are much more important. 

Each large school should have a primary and a grammar- 
grade ungraded room. Smaller schools could be managed with 
one ungraded room. The enrollment should not exceed eighteen. 

These rooms should not be used as a depositary for trouble- 
some pupils, nor considered as a means of handling backward or 
defective children. While these types will naturally be well 
represented in the ungraded rooms, the child who is irregular 
because farther advanced in some of his work should also find 
these rooms profitable places in which to work. Unless care 
is exercised, teachers will unload their difficult problems on 
the ungraded room, but will keep the promising pupil, although 
irregular in his classification. One of the neglected phases of 
our educational work is proper provision for the exceptionally 
bright child. 

Ungraded rooms will appear to be expensive because of the 
limited number of pupils per teacher, and the extra salary she 
should receive. The practice of measuring the expense of a 
school system by the annual cost per pupil is palpably fallacious. 
Two most important items are omitted: (a) the percentage of 
pupils who are regularly passed through the school without loss 
of time in repeating grades or subjects, and (b) what they are 
getting in return for the years spent in school. The system that 
carries its elementary pupils at an annual cost of $30, but with 
a large percentage repeating one, two, or three years of work, is 
expensive from a financial point of view, to say nothing of the 
loss of self-confidence, hope, ambition, time, and life of the 
pupils failing. The cost might be reduced to $15 or $20, and 
still be appallingly expensive because it wasted the time of chil- 
dren, and the public's money, and gave little or nothing in re- 
turn. Some systems are using the Batavia plan, instead of the 
ungraded room. A special teacher is employed and assigned to 
a room to which the irregular pupils are sent. It is her duty to 
balance them and put them in line with regular grade work. 
This plan has some merits, especially in high-school work, 
where it should be freely used. It lacks, however, the personal- 
influence quality so important in work of this kind with ele- 
mentary school children. 

(b) truant schools 

Portland should organize four or more truant schools, dis- 
tributed throughout the city, and a central school to which the 
boys from these schools may be sent when prepared to leave the 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 201 



district truant school. These schools must act as the eddies to 
catch the driftwood of the educational stream, where it may be 
treated long enough to again risk it in the main current. Par- 
enthetically, it might be observed that human driftwood is worth 
saving, and much of it is the best afloat, depending somewhat, 
of course, upon the character of the main current. To the truant 
schools are sent those so out of harmony with the conditions 
that prevail in the regular schools, that they cannot be handled 
with economy by regular teachers and in regular class-rooms. 
Those who are chronically disobedient and disorderly present 
special problems, requiring special study and treatment. 

There are two ways of attacking the problem : One is to 
subject the boy, in the truant school, to such unpleasant treat- 
ment that he will gladly return to the regular school and submit 
to conditions imposed upon him; the other is to recognize him 
as a highly specialized, poorly organized individual, whose 
powers of correlation are weakened; to impose upon him con- 
ditions so few in number and loose in character that he will 
find more difficulty in violating than in observing them, to 
treat him with such genuine and tolerant kindness and consider- 
ation that he must recognize a friend interested in his welfare, 
and discover the things in which he is already interested, upon 
which the building of his character may be started. 

I advocate the latter plan. This initial treatment must be 
largely humanistic, but sympathy, kindness, and interest must 
lead the boy toward some legitimate and profitable work in which 
he takes an interest, and which he can do with credit. The tran- 
sition from the undesirable and unprofitable must be gradual, 
in some cases slow, but it must be constant and sure. For this 
reason boys should not be kept too long in the local truant school, 
in which organization, equipment, and teaching must neces- 
sarily be simple and limited. As soon as they have discovered 
that the world is not their enemy, but is friendly, that gentility 
pays, and that there is something worthy which they can do 
when prepared, these boys should be sent to a central special 
school. 

This school should differ from the local school in closer 
organization and enlarged opportunities for the boy to develop 
his interests and efficiency. It should have music, art, and 
manual work as its chief characteristic phases. Its music should 
consist largely of chorus, glee club, mandolin, band, and or- 
chestral work. A large percentage of boys who find their way 
into schools of this type are musical by nature, and music offers 
the best means of softening and refining their natures. The 
right kind of music teacher could lead these boys to sing or 
play themselves into heaven, which, I take it, is a state of being 
rather than a geographical location. Art work should consist 
largely of illustrating, cartooning, work in metal, leather, and 
clay. Manual work should include cabinet work, forging, wait- 



202 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

ing, chef cooking, printing, elementary electricity, cobbling, 
pipe-fitting, automobile repairing, chauffering, and gardening. 
What English work is done should be largely public reading, 
orating, debating, and dramatics, with a wide range of suitable 
books for home and leisure reading. The school should be lib- 
erally provided with playground, gymnasium, and swimming- 
pool facilities. 

From this central special school, boys should be graduated, 
when prepared, into trade schools, high schools, and technical 
high schools, according to the interests and powers they have 
developed. Such a scheme of handling irregular boys should 
result in saving practically all, and its returns to Portland would 
make it one of the most attractive investments the city could 
undertake. To secure qualified teachers for these schools is a 
difficult thing. Unless those with comprehension and a vision 
can be secured, however, the schools will fail. 

How to deal with girls of this type is a much more difficult 
problem. The same general principles are involved, however, 
and the problem should be worked out along the same lines. 
Fortunately there are not so many bad (?) girls as boys, or if 
there are, society has a more effective, although a more unnat- 
ural, way of compelling them to conceal their badness. 

(C) VACATION SCHOOLS 

What to do with the leisure time of the city-bred American 
boy and girl is one of the serious modern questions. The average 
city parent cannot or does not find profitable employment for 
his children during school vacations. As a consequence they 
choose their own, which is usually unprofitable, and often 
harmful. The solution of the difficulty probably lies in city 
schools operating throughout the year. For awhile, at least, at- 
tendance at summer school will remain optional. Portland has 
already recognized the importance of summer schools, and the 
experiment with them, I understand, has been successful. Port- 
land shares, with all other cities, the need of developing and en- 
larging these schools. 

There are two distinct types of vacation schools developing 
in this country. The first undertakes to offer opportunity to 
those who wish to make credits in one or more subjects, either 
that they may enter school in the fall, regularly, with their class, 
or may forge ahead in one or more subjects, and finish their 
school work in advance of their class. Either motive is stim- 
ulating, and the results highly gratifying. The second type of 
vacation school concerns itself more with occupying the time 
of the child in some useful constructive work, and gives but 
scant attention to regular school work and methods. Portland 
has not yet organized this second type of school. I believe the 
city should do so. 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 208 

If regular school work and methods are exclusively followed 
in the vacation schools, they can but partially succeed in meet- 
ing the problem, which is largely one of keeping children in- 
terested and occupied in some activities that will contribute 
toward their development, and add to their efficiency as citi- 
zens. The negative side is that it "prevents their engaging in 
activities that will neutralize their qualities and powers of good 
citizenship. This second type of school is more educational than 
the first, and acts as a most effective means of educating teachers 
and principals. How to keep pupils in school, attendance upon 
which is voluntary, can be successfully answered only by those 
who are thinking more deeply than is required merely to help 
in carrying out a prescribed course of study, or working in a 
system already established. 

The question concerning a school of this type will nat- 
urally be, "How does it profit a child educationally, and aid him 
in his progress through school, to spend his time in a summer 
school, singing, dancing, playing, swimming, drawing, cooking, 
sewing, gardening, and working in wood, metal, or clay?" Those 
who measure the educational progress of a child by the rapidity 
with which he passes through the grades, would find little to 
commend in this kind of a school. Those who look upon edu- 
cation as a developmental process will welcome the opportunity 
offered to diversify the system of education by a more liberal 
introduction of life elements. 

(d) night schools; school entertainments 
Nowhere in this country has sufficient thought been given 
to and adequate provision made for night-school work. Port- 
land should enlarge this phase of its educational work by open- 
ing more centers throughout the city, and changing and diver- 
sifying the work given. 

The class of pupils that will take advantage of night-school 
work is strongly influenced by the geographical element. For- 
eigners are reluctant to leave the neighborhood in which they 
live and are acquainted, and laboring people either seek rest or 
recreation, unless the school is near and it requires little effort 
to reach it. The neighborhood moving-picture show and mission 
church illustrate this. 

The courses offered should be diversified more, and some- 
what of a change made in the presentation of the work. Port- 
land is attempting to provide only for those who wish to, or 
those who must finish the work offered in the regular grades 
of the day schools. This is covering but a fractional part of the 
work that should be done. Classes for foreigners in English, 
elementary mathematics, spelling, American history and civics, 
elementary law, etc., should be added to the subjects offered. 
Special classes for foreigners preparing for the examination to 
become American citizens should be provided. Arrangeme 



204 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

can sometimes be made with officers and courts to accept this 
work in lieu of an examination. The elementary night schools 
should offer commercial work in bookkeeping, stenography and 
typewriting, penmanship, arithmetic, and business correspond- 
ence. 

Where possible, the city library should be asked to establish 
at the evening school a branch library, which should be kept 
open on certain nights of the week, and be furnished with books 
that will be read by people of the neighborhood. To be reason- 
ably efficient, libraries, like schools, must study the neighbor- 
hood they serve. This we understand the Portland library has 
done in a remarkably efficient manner. 

Entertainments 

The entertainment feature should be developed in the Port- 
land night schools. Some cities are making this a separate fea- 
ture of school work, ofttimes holding entertainments in build- 
ings in which there is no night-school work offered. This plan 
I believe to be illogical and wasteful, since entertainments should 
be diverting, restful and relaxing, but first of all educational. 
The social feature, that of bringing people of the neighborhood 
together, is probably the most important part of neighborhood 
entertainments given in the schools. All of these features can 
be best understood and provided for by a principal and corps 
of night-school teachers who have made a study of the neigh- 
borhood, and understand the elements that compose it. In addi- 
tion to these, one of the strongest reasons for combining the 
entertainment feature with the other night-school activities is 
that people who come to be entertained will become interested 
in some subject or subjects offered, and will join classes for 
regular night-school work. A live principal, who is allowed to 
choose his teachers and use the entertainment feature in building 
his night school, is in position to make a lasting contribution to 
the cause of education, and wield a powerful influence on the 
neighborhood in which he is permitted to work. 

These entertainments should include: Moving-picture shows, 
stereopticon travel talks, lectures on live topics, formation of 
choral clubs, glee clubs, mandolin clubs, orchestras, boys' and 
girls' literary and debating clubs, neighborhood improvement so- 
cieties, reading clubs, games, boxing, folk-dancing, and social 
dancing. It should be fully recognized that the introduction of 
social dancing in the school building will meet with vigorous, 
sometimes influential, opposition from those who are more con- 
cerned with maintaining a creed or a sentiment than they are 
with working out a neighborhood and social problem. This 
opposition can often be neutralized by the appointment of a 
civic committee to co-operate in the work of the school, the 
members of which shall effectively represent the opposing ele- 



CHAP. XL NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 205 

ments. These people mean well, and the important thing is to 
get them to study and understand the problem. 

Night High-School Extension 

The night high school of Portland should enlarge and mod- 
ify its courses to offer material and substantial help to those 
engaged in: 

(1) Electrical work, such as wiring, telephony, and even 
electrical engineering. 

(2) Mechanical work, such as drafting, machine-shop work, 
designing, installing, engineering. 

(3) Architecture, such as drafting, tracing, designing, stress, 
strength of materials, writing specifications, etc. 

(4) Business practice, such as clerking, accounting, sales- 
manship, advertising, clerical work, etc. 

(5) Home-keeping, such as cooking, dressmaking, dry- 
cleaning, laundering, tailoring, millinery, home accounting, and 
food chemistry, etc. 

(6) The trades — carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing, dealing 
with materials, cost, source of supply, principles involved, qual- 
ities necessary to succeed, field of promotion, wages, etc. 

(7) Contracting, involving accounting, labor, source and 
cost of supplies, transportation, margins, etc. 

The work offered should, in nature, be more theoretical and 
scientific than practical, and should supplement the work of the 
student who is engaged during the day in the practical phase of 
the work. To fully develop the work along the lines suggested 
will require an expenditure of time and money, but it will pay 
great dividends to the city, if properly worked out. All of these 
suggested lines of work are legitimate parts of a system of pub- 
lic education. 

(e) extension of the school time 

The school day is too short, the number of school days per 
year too few. School plants cost money; economy in their use 
requires longer days and more of them. Custom is the only rea- 
son for opening school at 9 a. m., closing at 3 p. m., and shutting 
the school house Friday afternoon to open again Monday morn- 
ing. On the basis of an eight-hour day, five and a half days in 
the week, almost fifty per cent of loss in time is sustained in 
our school system, not taking into account vacations and holi- 
days. If these should become a part of the problem, the loss 
would approximate sixty-five per cent. 

Most grammar-school buildings, and practically all high- 
school buildings, should keep their doors and some of their de- 
partments open from 8 until 5 every week day, and should close 
only on Sundays and legal holidays. Attendance should, for a 
while at least, be optional and work offered to upper-grade 



206 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



pupils only. This work should consist largely of manual train- 
ing, music, art, local excursions, physical exercises, and play. 
Recent development of the school playground is most gratify- 
ing, but it should be accompanied with an equal development of 
manual work for adolescent boys and girls, giving them an option 
between work and play. 

This extended day should be introduced gradually. At first 
the sloyd rooms, shops, and cooking and sewing rooms should be 
opened in a few of the buildings, and the teachers given extra 
pay for doing the work. To be sure, many of the teachers are 
remaining overtime without pay, with the pupils who care to 
stay for extra work; but to put it on a substantial and regular 
footing, the work should have financial consideration. This 
need not be burdensome, as a sufficient number of teachers who 
would not otherwise remain regularly will do so for a small 
additional pay, and those who would remain without it deserve 
it most. 

(f) special art schools 

It would prove a profitable educational investment if Port- 
land were to establish two special art centers, one for elementary 
and the other for intermediate and high-school pupils who show 
especial aptitude for drawing. Such pupils should be given one 
or two full half-days per week for this work, which should be 
recognized in lieu of other work in promoting them. The most 
capable and inspirational teachers available should be in charge 
of this work. 

(g) neighborhood, or district schools 

The neighborhood school is practically a new thing in edu- 
cation, although the principles underlying it have been recognized 
in many school systems. The term here is employed to desig- 
nate a school organized especially to study and meet the needs 
of its pupils and their parents, taking into account their heredity, 
experiences, and environment. Portland could use at least two 
such schools, with advantage, — one to the north and one to the 
south of the present business center, on the West Side. 

A brief description of one such school, which has been in 
operation for five years, will serve to illustrate what is meant. 
The pupils attending this school are practically all foreigners, 
or of foreign parentage. Italians predominate, although there 
are many Mexicans, and some of almost every nationality. 

The distinguishing features of the school are: 
(a) A day nursery, built, equipped, and conducted by the 
Board of Education. The building has five small rest or sleep- 
ing rooms, furnished with little beds, where the babies are put 
away when they grow tired and sleepy; toilets for little folks; 
a bath-room in which each child is given a bath at least once 
a week, — the only one some of them ever get; a small dining- 



CHAP. XL NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 207 

room, with little tables and chairs; and a small kitchen, where 
warm luncheons are prepared for them two or three times 
each day. The food for these lunches is contributed by mer- 
chants, through the solicitation of a woman's club; all other ex- 
pense, including the hiring of a nurse, being met by the Board 
of Education. In the main room of the nursery children play 
with tops, blocks, etc., and a small yard outside is fenced off 
from the main school grounds. This is partially covered with a 
roof to protect the children from the sun, and is supplied with 
abundant sand in which the little fellows play. 

The demand for day nurseries arose from economic condi- 
tions at home, which compelled mothers to be away part or all 
of the day, helping to earn a living for the family. The older 
girls, coming under the compulsory attendance school law, were 
also compelled to remain at home to care for the small children. 
Now they bring them to the day nursery in the morning, and 
take them away in the afternoon. Although this practical phase 
of the problem, arising from economic conditions, resulted in 
establishing day nurseries, the social and educational results of 
the work are far more significant. The force of this can be 
appreciated only after visiting the places where these children 
live or stay when not in school. Even the kindergarten age is 
too late to save many of them from the conditions under which 
they must exist as babies and little children. 

(b) A penny lunch, established by the same organization 
that is instrumental in supplying food provisions for the day 
nursery. The Board of Education furnishes the building, equip- 
ment, and pays the cook, and the woman's organization supplies 
the food. A penny secures for the child a good, large bowl of 
good, rich soup, with a half loaf of French bread. A second 
serving is allowed, and usually requested. The penny charge is 
made to avoid the charity feature. Children paying the penny 
feel that they are not paupers. When they do not have the 
penny, however, they are served at the request of the principal. 
The average number taking advantage of the penny lunch will 
approximate 350. The school enrolls about 600. For many of 
the children this is the best, if not the only, substantial meal 
they will get during the day. The experiment, which has been 
in operation for five years, proves the economy of feeding, at 
public expense, school children who are underfed at home. The 
school efficiency of such children is sufficiently increased to 
save the cost of the whole experiment in the decreased number 
of years it requires to get them through the school, disregarding 
wholly the benefits to be derived from their school work, and 
the effects upon their future lives. (See also Chapter XIV, sub- 
division 5.) 

(c) A home-economics building, designed to meet the needs 
of the community. A large sewing room, well supplied with 
machines, which are used by the pupils of the school and the 



208 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

women of the neighborhood. Girls who have left school, and 
mothers and wives of the community, may be seen any day in 
the school year making garments for themselves and the home, 
and receiving what help the teacher can give them. Those made 
by the school girls, in cost of materials and kind of garment, are 
adapted to the home from which the girl comes. Three teachers 
of the school make yearly visits to all of the homes, and learn 
the needs of the people. Work in cooking follows the same plan. 
Preparation of Italian and Spanish dishes is taught, food is 
siudied, and economy in materials practiced. In both cooking 
and sewing, girls are allowed to begin the work earlier and 
give more time to it than in regular schools. The first consid- 
eration in the work is to make it serve the neighborhood. 

(d) A room has been equipped with different kinds and 
sizes of looms, and rugs in abundance are made and taken into 
the homes. Sometimes these rugs constitute the only respectable 
bit of home furnishing, and their effect upon present and future 
citizenship cannot be measured. Mothers are allowed the use 
of the looms freely, and many take advantage of the opportunity. 

(e) A laundry room is equipped for effective work, and is 
used by school girls and neighborhood women to do home 
laundering. 

(f) Two sloyd or woodshop rooms are in use continuously. 
The making of home furniture constitutes most of the work. In 
connection with these there is a shoe-mending equipment in 
which hundreds of pairs of shoes are repaired during the year. 

(g) The older girls are taught how to care for children, and 
use the day nursery as a laboratory. 

(h) Home work begins with the primary grades, and in 
primary manual arts the idea of home is developed through the 
use of store boxes and cardboard made into houses, with win- 
dows for light, curtains for ornament, tables, chairs, beds, and 
tubs for use. In this school the little folks know more, al- 
though they experience less of, about right sanitation and proper 
living, than do those of wealthy communities. If the large cities 
of this country are ever to permanently rid themselves of slums 
and slum districts, it must be done through proper teaching in 
the public schools. 

(i) School and home garden work is highly developed. 

(j) A considerable percentage of Mexican people are care- 
less of their time. The older boys of the neighborhood, who 
have left school, are encouraged to spend their leisure time on 
the school grounds, where they may play at any time during 
the day. Some of these become interested in manual work, art, 
or music, and are led back into school work. 

Two questions naturally arise concerning a school of this 
kind: (1) What becomes of the regular school work, — the 
"Three R's"? and (2) how is the cost affected? The answer to 



CHAP. XI. NEEDED REORGANIZATIONS 209 

the first is that a marked improvement is noticeable in the aca- 
demic work of this school since its reorganization. The second 
point, which unfortunately is ofttimes the determining one, will 
for the present discourage this departure in school organization. 
The cost per pupil will increase from 20 per cent to 33 1-3 per 
cent. This ran be more than justified, though, by the increased 
efficiency, which should easily reach 50 per cent. In the school 
described it has been 100 per cent. 

(h) a school for janitors 

There is one other type of special school which I should like 
to recommend to the consideration of the Board of School Di- 
rectors, and that is a school for janitors. From appearances, the 
janitor service in Portland is excellent, the buildings being 
scrupulously clean. Since janitors, however, so nearly approach 
teachers in importance in school work, every large city school 
system should provide a school for janitors. Term of service, 
attendance at the school for janitors, and personal efficiency in 
the work should be recognized in a graded scale of wages paid. 
To pay all the same rate, regardless of intelligence displayed or 
service rendered, is a mistake. (See also Chapter XIII, where a 
similar recommendation is made.) 

3. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS. 

1. That the school system be reorganized, to secure greater 
educational efficiency, into the following units: 

1. Kindergarten, one year. 

2. Elementary schools, six years. 

3. Intermediate schools, three years. 

4. High schools, five years (three or four years now; five 

ultimately) . 

This can be made a truly American system, fitted to meet 
the social, professional, industrial, and commercial needs of 
American boys and girls. 

2. That ungraded rooms should be established in connection 
with each elementary school of any size, to afford the necessary 
provision for the exceptional children in the school. 

3. Four or five special or truant schools for boys, irregular 
in their studies, habits, and deportment, should be established, 
graduating their boys into a central special manual school, from 
which they should be admitted to one of the high schools. 

4. The vacation school system should be gradually enlarged 
and extended, and changed somewhat in type. The playgrounds 
should be closely connected with such school work. 

5. The night-school work should be enlarged, enriched, and 
materially extended in scope, and its purpose in part changed. 



210 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

6. The school day should be extended, and Saturday fore- 
noon included for vocational work in grammar schools, carry- 
ing the seventh and eighth grades, and in the intermediate 
schools and in the high schools. 

7. Two special art schools, one for intermediate and one for 
high-school pupils, should be established. 

8. There should be established at least two, and gradually 
a number more, of neighborhood schools, to meet the peculiar 
needs of certain centers within the city. 

9. A school for the instruction of janitors should be added, 
standards for the work established, and a wage scale based on 
efficiency instituted. 



PART III 

Buildings and Health 



CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 213 



Chapter XII 

THE BUILDING AND SITES PROBLEM 
Portland's Building Problem 

Two main problems confront the Board of School Directors 
of the Portland school district in the matter of school buildings, 
viz.: (1) How can they secure the construction of the best, 
safest, and most economical school buildings; and (2) how can 
they make those already constructed meet most helpfully the 
educational and hygienic demands of school life? In this chap- 
ter the first of these questions is considered, and in the following 
chapter Dr. Dresslar has answered the second. 

The Portland school district is today feeling the effects of 
a period of very rapid expansion. Such a period is always a 
trying one for a school district, or for a municipality. New 
needs appear and provision is made to meet them, but, before 
the necessary buildings can be erected, still greater increases in 
the population have made still more class-rooms necessary. Each 
new school building seems only to create a demand for more. 

Rapid Increase in School Population 

The rate at which the school population of Portland has in- 
creased is well shown in the diagram on the following page, in 
which the increases in school population (census, four to twenty 
years of age) and in the enrollment in the schools for the past 
twenty-three years are compared. 

It will be noted that the increase in school population was 
slow and gradual, until 1891. Then there came suddenly a rapid 
increase, for a few years only, after which the curve drops back 
to its former slower rate of increase. In 1901 a new increase in 
school census began, and this has continued. Since 1905 the 
increase has been rapid for both the school census and the school 
enrollment. This is shown by the rapid mounting upward of 
the curve. So great has been the recent increase in population 
that, in the seven years from 1905 to 1912, both the school 
census and the school enrollment have increased about 15,000 
children, and, from 1905 to 1913, the schools increased more in 
enrollment than they had in all the years from the time the first 
school was opened in 1847 up to 1905. 

The present rate of increase in the enrollment of children 
in the schools, based on the recent figures, is six children a day 
for every day in the year; a new class-room every six and two- 
thirds days; and a new school building, as large as the new Josiah 



214 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



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CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 215 

Failing school, every four months. At least three such build- 
ings, or their equivalent in scattered units, ought to be con- 
structed each year, to meet merely the present needs. These 
needs will naturally increase with the growth of the city, and 
soon four and five such new buildings will be required each 
year. 

Such a rapid growth as this means a great strain upon the 
school department finances, and the Board of School Directors 
has shown much foresight and has served the city well in keep- 
ing the school facilities abreast with this remarkable increase in 
the school population. So well has the board done this work 
that there are today no half-time classes in Portland, all chil- 
dren who need school accommodations are provided for, and 
the private and parochial school enrollment of the city is rela- 
tively small. This is, indeed, a commendable record of accom- 
plishment. The Board of School Directors is also to be com- 
mended for the foresight they have shown in purchasing sites; 
in planning buildings large enough for future needs; in erecting 
them in units, as needed; and in evolving recently a building 
department and a standard type of building construction. 

The costs for school buildings vary so much from city to 
city, with varying labor conditions and material costs, that one 
not familiar with the city cannot say whether the building costs 
are high or low, so the Survey did not consider this question. 
The architectural and supervision work, done under the recently 
created Superintendent of Properties, seemed, however, to be 
well and economically handled, and calculated to produce good 
buildings at low costs. 

Recent Increase in Building Outlays 

Such a rapid expansion of the school system has meant 
large outlays for sites and for new buildings, as is shown in 
Fig. 10, given on the following page. 

From a somewhat normal expenditure of one-fourth of the 
school money for sites and new buildings in 1901-02, the Board 
has been compelled to increase such expenditures up to over one- 
half of the yearly expenses. The annual costs for maintaining 
the school plant created (insurance, janitors, fuel, light and 
power, water, telephone, and repairs) have naturally also stead- 
ily increased, as is shown. The result has been that, by 1912, 
only forty per cent of the money expended for schools was spent 
for the real work of the schools, — instruction and the adminis- 
tration of instruction. The year 1913 shows a decrease in ex- 
penditures for sites and buildings, but it is probable that this 
drop is temporary only, and that following years will again wit- 
ness large expenditures. 



216 



SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



There is no reason to think that the growth of Portland and 
the increase in school population will, in the next half-century 
at least, suffer anything more than temporary checks. On the 
contrary, with the opening of the Panama Canal, the coming of 




CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 217 

immigrant families with larger numbers of children, the gradual 
decrease in the percentage of unmarried men in the city, and 
the general settlement of the Northwest, there is every reason 
to expect that the present increase in both school population 
and school enrollment will not only continue, but will also in- 
crease in rate. There is also reason to believe that both the city 
and the school district will be materially increased in size, by 
the annexation of outlying territory, which in turn will require 
additional expenditures for school facilities. If Portland were 
not a rapidly growing city, with a large future ahead of it, the 
school-building problem would be much easier than it now is. 
It is relatively easy to provide for the needs of a stationary 
community. 

The building problem is still further complicated by a re- 
cent city ordinance requiring fire-proof construction for all 
school buildings. This has added fifty-five per cent to the cost 
of construction. With the increased cost of labor and mate- 
rials, it is probable that each class-room provided today costs 
sixty per cent more to construct than it did six or seven years 
ago. An important problem facing the Board of School Directors 
today is how to continue to keep up with the increasing edu- 
cational needs of the school district, and not make the taxes 
too high, or cut the percentage of money devoted to instruction 
and administration too low, or both. 

Shifting of Population 

Besides the rapid increase in school population, Portland is 
also confronted by a marked shifting of population. This adds 
somewhat to the difficulty of the problem. On the West Side, 
North Portland is rapidly changing, in its lower and level por- 
tions, from a residential to an industrial, commercial, and ship- 
ping center. It is probable that the center of the manufacturing 
district of the city will in time be located here, near the river, 
and below the bridges. One school (Atkinson) was abandoned 
in 1911, as a result of a change which had taken place within 
five or six years. The Chapman and the Couch schools also 
show the effect of these changes. That portion of North Port- 
land now consisting of good residences and apartment houses is 
likely to become, within a relatively short time, a dwelling place 
for laboring people of the poorer class, while the hills are likely 
to be settled by a residence class of means. Just what will be 
the future school needs here is somewhat uncertain. 

In the central portion of the West Side, the present com- 
mercial center, business will rapidly expand to the south and 
westward. Residences are now being crowded out by hotels, 
retail stores, office buildings, and large apartment houses. This 
will continue westward to the hills, and southward as needs in- 
crease. School needs here will materially decrease. The Lowns- 



218 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

dale school is now practically unused; the Ladd and Shattuck 
will decrease in size; and the Lincoln high school will probably, 
before long, be surrounded by business houses. 

South of this region is an area, lying between the low ground 
along the river and the hills behind, and known as South Port- 
land, which bids fair to remain, for a long time to come, the re- 
siding place of the recently arrived immigrant. Here slums will 
develop, and here educational needs will be large. 

The hills behind, with their magnificent outlook, will in 
time be covered with residences of a good type, and be the re- 
siding place of professional and business men of means. Still 
further to the southward, out to the angle formed by the Clack- 
amas and the Washington County lines, is an area which will 
probably be annexed before long, and which will probably de- 
velop into a mildle-class suburban residence region. Educational 
needs here will rapidly increase after annexation. 

The East Side of the city is destined to be its great residence 
district, and this will be expanded by further annexations. To 
this side there is now a constant migration of people from the 
other side of the river. Many of these are people of small means, 
who are buying homes on the installment plan in this newer 
part of the city. There is also a marked movement of people 
away from the river districts of the central East Side, the people 
moving further to the north, east, or south. It seems probable 
now that a large section of the lower lands along the Willamette 
River, to the north of the bridges on the East Side, will develop 
into manufacturing and shipping areas, and that another large 
section along the central East Side will develop into a secondary 
business district, for warehouses, certain types of large business, 
and small stores. The Shaver, Eliot, Holliday, Buckman, Haw- 
thorne, and Stephens districts are almost certain to decrease 
rapidly in school children, and some of these schools will prob- 
ably have to be abandoned before they are worn out. As the 
people move from the old school districts, new class-rooms must 
be provided elsewhere to receive the children. In time, also, and 
probably sooner than Portland people now expect, it will be 
found that the Washington high school is not at all well located. 

Still further to the eastward a large residence population 
will in time be found. Mt. Tabor Park probably will be very 
near the center of the future residence district of the East Side. 
Another residence region on the East Side will be to the north, 
with the Ockley Green school probably not far from its center, 
and still others to the south and the southeast, with the East- 
moreland and the Lents schools not far from their centers. Into 
each of these districts there is today a constant migration of 
people from the West Side, and from the central East Side, near 
the river. 



CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 219 



Probable Future Needs 

While this shifting of the population complicates the build- 
ing problem somewhat, it also makes certain things seem clear. 
The great residence region is almost certain to be on the East 
Side, and the great majority of employed persons will make their 
homes there. In the four East Side residence districts, just de- 
scribed, there will be the greatest need for schools. Another 
residence section, probably of large future needs, lies on the 
West Side, and to the south and west. In each of these five 
districts large school sites should be secured, the best of school 
buildings erected, and good playgrounds, athletic fields, parks 
and recreation centers provided. On the West Side, too, there 
will be an increasing need for schools on or near the hills, and 
a decreasing need for them in the level portions from the Shat- 
tuck school north to the region of the Davis school. The Davis, 
Failing, and Holman schools seem well located for the apparent 
needs of the near future. The Davis and the Holman schools 
should be provided with much larger sites, as all three of these 
schools doubtless have an important future work to do. 

Size of School Lots 
The school lots for nearly all the school buildings in the city 
are too small. This may be seen from the following table: 

Table 22 
Size of School Sites in Portland 

School sites of less than 1 acre 18 

School sites from 1 to 1% acres 10 

School sites from IY2 to 2 acres 15 

School sites from 2 to 3 acres 13 

School sites from 3 to 4 acres 3 

School sites from 4 to 5 acres 1 

School sites of over 5 acres 2 

School sites of less than 1 acre 3(¥ 

School sites of less than 2 acres 70£ 

This is partly due to the fact that the regulation block of 
Portland is much smaller than that in most cities, and, instead 
of insisting on two or four blocks, and condemning the enclosed 
streets, the Board of School Directors has in the past been com- 
pelled, either from lack of money or lack of the support of 
public opinion, or both, to depend often on a single block, some- 
times less, for school lots. There are some commendable varia- 
tions from this, notably those of the Creston, the new Hoffman 
site, the Jefferson high school, the Hawthorne, and a few others. 

Recently the board has shown comemndable wisdom in buy- 
ing larger school sites. Forty thousand square feet of land (the 



220 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

typical 200 by 200 Portland block) is altogether too meager for 
any ordinary city school lot. Even if a lot of this size has the 
proper exposure, and is safely situated with reference to noisy 
?nd dusty car lines, or smoking and buzzing mills, very little 
available playground is left when even a moderate-sized building 
is properly placed on it. When a building of eighteen class- 
rooms and an assembly room is placed on a lot of this size, it 
becomes necessary to set the building so close to the street that 
it will cover practically one-half of the ground. What ground 
is left is usually so divided and cut up by the building that its 
usefulness for playground purposes is reduced to a minimum. 

According to the rules of the London School Board, 100 feet 
of play space is required for each pupil. Many of the schools 
of Portland cannot approximate to this standard. If we deduct 
one-half for building, the number of square feet of free space 
left, per pupil, for certain buildings, is approximately: 

Eliot School 27 square feet 

Shattuck School 28 square feet 

Albina Homestead School 30 square feet 

Couch School 30 square feet 

Hawthorne School 36 square feet 

Washington High School 36 square feet 

Sunnyside School 40 square feet 

Chapman School 40 square feet 

Buckman School 41 square feet 

Stephens School 41 square feet 

Woodstock School 51 square feet 

Even this space has, not infrequently, been further decreased 
by "landscape gardening," so that the streets are about all that 
is left for playgrounds. All of the above schools, if they are to 
be continued in use, are in need of larger playgrounds. 



Larger Playgrounds Should Be Provided 

One of the most serious menaces to the morals and general 
welfare of city boys is the lack of ample playgrounds. It has 
been shown again and again that lack of playgrounds and juvenile 
delinquency, in the great cities of the East, are closely related. 
Portland is now in a critical stage of its development. There are 
still large and well-situated tracts of unimproved land within 
the city limits, and, while in some instances exorbitant values are 
assigned, for the most part large school lots are available at 
fairly reasonable prices. The Board of School Directors should 
acquire larger school grounds, and should undertake to give to 
the children ample opportunity for satisfying one of their most 
fundamental instincts. No boy who is denied opportunity for 



CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 221 

vigorous play with his fellows can reach his highest possible de- 
velopment, either physically, morally, socially, or democrat- 
ically. The large, new playground at the Creston school will do 
more to keep the boys and girls in school, and inspirit them 
while there, than all the sermonizing the whole teaching force 
might employ to impress upon them the significance of a thor- 
ough education. More room for the children is one of the best 
possible investments which a city can make. Unless this land 
is acquired soon, increasing values and fewer opportunities 
will greatly reduce the probability that this rapidly growing com- 
mercial city will ever take proper care of its children. The 
school buildings and playgrounds are the logical places for rec- 
reation centers, and the educational department of a city can 
administer and supervise this part of a city's duties better and 
to more purpose than anj' other department, for in its essence 
the work of a recreational center is primarily an educational 
undertaking. 

The importance of planning for the future at this stage can 
hardly be overestimated. If the Board of School Directors had 
some comprehensive fixed plan furnished them, with reference 
to parks, boulevards, car lines, and other public necessities, it 
would help them greatly in the task of selecting suitable sites 
for school buildings, in preventing encroachments from disturb- 
ing noises and more serious dangers, and in preventing the wast- 
ing of funds on permanent buildings to supply what will prove 
to be only temporary needs. Portland needs rational and prac- 
tical plans for immediate and future guidance. 

The High Schools 

The high schools of the district will in time be called upon 
to render a much larger service than they at present render, and 
this ought to be kept in view in securing land and in planning 
for the future. The Jefferson high school is probably well 
located, and is supplied with about the proper amount of land. 
The Washington high school will, before long, be found to be 
poorly located; the site is too small, and the building is also 
poorly adapted to modern high-school needs. Eventually this 
can be sold, and a new site, out near Mt. Tabor, secured for a 
new high school. A third high school on the East Side will be 
needed before long, in the southern portion of that part of the 
city. A site for an agricultural school, somewhere out on the 
East Side, should also be secured before land becomes too val- 
uable. 

In providing for such schools for the future, plenty of land 
should be secured. A site of eight to te'n acres is not too large 
for the needs of the ordinary cosmopolitan high school of the 
near future, while for an agricultural high school a site of at 
least fifty acres should be secured. 



222 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

On the "West Side, the new Lincoln high school site is too 
small, and the one and a half blocks ought to be increased to 
four at once, before the land becomes too valuable. The present 
building is none too large for present needs, and will soon be 
much too small. Surrounded as this school soon will be by 
business, care ought to be exercised now to secure sufficient 
land, and to develop such an institution as might be located 
best in the business part of a city. 

Here should be developed a group of high-school buildings 
ministering particularly to city needs. On one block should be 
erected a large building, somewhat similar to the present one, for 
a technical or polytechnic school, and the present trade school 
should be consolidated with it. On another block should be 
erected another similar building to house the present commer- 
cial work, and in which a large and well-equipped commercial 
high school of the best type can be developed. On the fourth 
block could be erected excellent gymnasium facilities for the 
students of all these schools, or the block could be held in re- 
serve for future high-school needs. On the annexation of new 
territory, additional high schools probably will need to be devel- 
oped in such. 

With these conditions before the Board of School Directors, 
their problem is how to keep up with the increasing material 
needs of the school district, and provide it with the best, safest, 
and most economical school plant, but not cramp in doing so the 
development of the instruction for which the buildings have been 
erected. 

The Best Buildings 

The type of school building best suited to school work is still 
in process of constant change. The best buildings of a decade 
ago are being replaced by much better buildings today, and we 
have no assurance that the same will not be true of a decade 
to come. In fact, everything seems to indicate that we are now 
in a period of rapid change and development. The old Port- 
land high school building (Lownsdale) was doubtless regarded 
as an excellent school building when constructed, in 1883, but 
thirty years later we regard it as practically unfit for school 
use. The Couch, Shattuck, and the old Failing schools are other 
examples of buildings, good in their day, but now obsolete and 
scarcely fit for instruction. Some of the more recent buildings, 
also, while still reasonably sound and secure, represent today a 
very poor type of school-house construction. The new Failing 
school and the Lincoln high school buildings represent the best 
buildings Portland has so far produced, and, after allowing for 
certain defects and omissions, these must be regarded as excel- 
lent buildings, and ought to prove useful for a half century at 
least. There is no assurance, however, that ten years from 



CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 228 



now school-house construction may not be so improved upon 
that these will then be regarded as of a somewhat inferior type. 

No one knows, for example, but that open-air schools may 
not, in the near future, supplant all other types of elementary 
school buildings. Unit buildings, all one story high, with con- 
necting arcades and a detached heating plant, have also been 
introduced in some cities. In still other cities, one-story struc- 
tures are now being built. Until very recently, too, intermediate 
schools (as described in Chapters IX and XI) were not thought 
of; today the large educational value of such schools has been 
so clearly demonstrated that it is only a question of a few years 
until all progressive cities will include such as a part of their 
school systems, and will erect buildings specially designed for 
such instruction. Until very recently one large high-school 
building, such as the Jefferson high school, was built to include 
in it all the instruction given; today our best high schools are 
securing large acreage and building a series of unit buildings, 
each adapted to certain purposes, and all grouped according to 
some good architectural plan. The first cost for such buildings 
is not very much larger; the cost for upkeep is lower; the fire 
risk is less; and the educational and administrative aspects are 
much improved. 

So far as our present knowledge goes, however, the new 
Failing school, with certain modifications along the lines sug- 
gested by Superintendent Francis (Chapters X and XI) and Dr. 
Dresslar (Chapter XIII), to adapt it better for special instruc- 
tion, is the best type of elementary-school building for Port- 
land's use which the city has so far evolved. The Lincoln 
high school is also the best high-school building so far con- 
structed. Much credit is due the Board of School Directors 
for having evolved and erected such satisfactory and sub- 
stantial types of buildings. Until something better is evolved, 
it would be well to follow such types in future construction. 

Other Types of Rooms In School Buildings 

In building new buildings after these types, though, care 
ought to be taken not to follow too closely the type of interior 
represented in the Failing school, good as it is. More rooms for 
special purposes, such as science room, music room, and do- 
mestic science room, ought to be provided. An assembly hall 
that is larger, and more capable of being used for school 
assemblies and for neighborhood meetings, ought to be built, 
and it would be well if this were on the ground floor, and 
so arranged that it would be possible to use it in the evenings 
or at other times without entering other parts of the building. 
A room for a branch public library might also be included 
in such a school, with advantage. Baths, in the basement, ought 
also to be added. 



224 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



The Safest Buildings 

Such buildings are also somewhat safer than a wooden, or 
a wood and brick construction, though not enough so to be 
of any special importance. The fire drills in use in the Port- 
land schools are the best I have ever seen. In less than one 
minute from the first signal, buildings containing 600 to 700 
children are completely empty, and the children are lined up 
in ranks with their teachers across the street. Monitors, too, 
have searched the building and reported to the principal that 
all rooms, cloakrooms, and halls are clear. The monitors 
and principals can then leave the building, within the minute. 
The concentration of the heating plant in one central location; 
the concrete walls and floors in the basements; the watchfulness 
of janitors; fire plugs and hose within the buildings; the large 
doors swinging outward, and provided with safety openers; 
the excellent fire drills; the easy grades of stairs; and the 
limitation of buildings to two stories; — all these factors make 
the chance of a child being burned in a wooden building in 
Portland about as small as in a fire-proof building. 

Since the Collingwood, Ohio, disaster, in which a number 
of children were burned to death in a poorly constructed 
wooden building, many ill-advised laws have been enacted in 
various states, relative to the construction of school houses and 
other public buildings. While distinctly favoring fire-proof 
construction for all large and permanent school buildings, there 
is nevertheless such a thing as overdoing the matter. In a 
city such as Portland, where the centers of population are 
shifting so rapidly, there ought to be some opportunity, at this 
stage of the city's development, to buijd small semi-fire-proof 
buildings, especially when these are well removed from danger 
from without. Othewise, the Board of School Directors may 
be compelled to risk making wasteful expenditure of public 
funds. When a basement is carefully fire-proofed; chimneys 
are safely built; all electrical wiring done under rigid inspection; 
stairways made of fire-proof construction, and ample in num- 
ber; and sufficient exits are planned, with safety locks on, 
all doors, the danger from fire within the building is so very 
small that the city ordinance now in force seems too rigid. 

The Most Economical Type of Building 

The first cost for wooden construction in Portland seems 
to be about one-third less than for fire-proof construction. The 
first cost, however, is not the whole cost. The cost for in- 
surance, upkeep, and repairs is less for a fire-proof building 
than for a wooden one. The useful life of a wooden building 
is from twenty-five to thirty years; a fire-proof building ought 
to last a century, and ought not, with present types of con- 



CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 225 

struction, to become obsolete for school purposes for at least 
twice the length of life of tne wooden buildings, — provided 
always that the school population does not move away and 
leave it. This is a constant danger which every growing city 
faces; if it does, the one compensation lies in the increased 
value of the land. 

The new reinforced buildings of the Failing type are re- 
ported as having cost about $7,000 a classroom, and the wooden 
buildings recently erected as having cost about $4,500 a class- 
room. This is an increase of 55 per cent in cost, for a building 
which ought to last at least twice as long, and cost less for 
insurance and repairs in the meantime. Figured only on twice 
the length of life, though, and also disregarding insurance and 
upkeep, the fire-proof building is seen to cost, at most, but 
three-fourths that of a wooden building, and is thus a more 
economical type of building in the long run, if one is sure that 
the centers of school population will remain somewhat fixed 
for fifty years to come. 

This difference in costs may be illustrated from present 
Portland school buildings. For example, the Jefferson high 
school building cost but 60 per cent of that of the new Lincoln 
high school, a building of somewhat similar capacity, but the 
Lincoln high school will outwear the Jefferson high school 
two or three times; has practically no fire risk; and will cost 
but little for repairs; while repairs at the Jefferson high school 
will be both large and costly. Based on first costs, the Jefferson 
high school is a 40 per cent cheaper building; based on repairs 
and maintenance costs and a life of only twice as long, the 
Lincoln high school will probably prove to be 50 per cent 
cheaper building than the Jefferson. Similar differences might 
be shown as between the new reinforced concrete Failing build- 
ing and one of the more recent wooden-construction schools, 
such as the Lents, or the Glencoe. The only difficulty about 
fire-proof construction is that mentioned above, namely, of 
being certain where the school children will live fifty years 
hence. Even this is not as important as it at first seems, as 
there might be an actual gain in selling the site then. 

The difference in initial costs between wooden and fire- 
proof construction may be shown further by the following 
comparison of costs for sixty new class-rooms, a year's needs 
at present, and built according to the new and the old plans: 

1. Fire-proof construction, 60 at $7,000 each. .$420,000 

2. Wooden construction, 60 at $4,500 each 270,000 

Increased initial cost for former $150,000 



226 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Paying for Buildings by Tax or by Bonding 

The large initial cost for fire-proof buildings, and the plan 
of paying for them all in one year by a tax, is what makes 
school building in Portland seem so costly. At the present 
time Portland needs about sixty new class-rooms a year for 
its elementary schools alone. Soon the number may be seventy, 
eighty, and perhaps even more. On the basis of the present 
assessment of property in the school district, the increased 
initial cost for sixty class-rooms in fire-proof construction 
will raise the yearly tax rate for schools in the district only 
about V-i mill (5 cents on the $100 of assessed property) ; and a 
tax of 1% mills (15 cents on the $100) will pay for the sixty 
fire-proof class-rooms complete, with no bonds and no future 
interest charges. The rate will probably never exceed this, as 
increases in values will counterbalance the increased number 
of class-rooms required. In other words, to build and pay for, 
at once, without bonds, a large, reinforced-concrete, 22-class- 
room building, such as the . new Failing school, would cost a 
citizen only about 55 cents for every $1,000 of property for 
which he was assessed, — a trifle more than the cost of four 
good cigars. 

The greatly increased costs for schools in Portland, within 
recent years, have not come so much because of increased costs 
for instruction, or for fireproof school buildings, as be- 
cause of: (1) the necessity of buying so many new school 
sites, and of enlarging old ones; (2) the need of erecting so many 
new class-rooms to meet the needs of a rapidly growing city; 
and (3) to the very wise policy of the people of Portland 
in paying for most of the buildings at once, by a tax, instead 
of shouldering the debt onto the future by the issuance of bonds. 
In the case of Portland, where from two-thirds to three-fourths 
of the present school buildings will need to be replaced by new 
structures within the next quarter of a century, the wise results 
of such a building policy, if it can be afforded by a city, will 
be evident. 

If we could see anything to indicate that the people of 
our American cities will in the near future reach the end of 
the development of their school systems, or that a city such as 
Portland would, in thirty years, be largely through with building 
school houses, it might be wise to spread the payments over a 
period of years. Those who have studied the problem most, 
however, can see no such end to the educational process. As 
was pointed out in Chapter VII, the whole conception of modern 
education is changing very rapidly, and there is every indica- 
tion that education, in the broadest sense of the term, will in 
time become the greatest business of a city or a state. In a 
quarter or a half a century public education is almost certain to 
be extended into fields of constructive human welfare of which 



CHAP. XII. BUILDINGS AND SITES PROBLEM 



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228 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

we do not now dream. Everything that tends to conserve child 
life and advance child welfare, and hence the welfare of the 
race, as well as most of that relating to the improvement of 
adults and home life, will in time be regarded as a legitimate 
function of public education. Those cities will be best able 
to meet the large educational needs of the future in a really 
large way which do not handicap themselves too heavily by 
bonded debt now. Of the 37 cities studied in Chapter VI, but 
14, or 38 per cent, had any bonded debt for schools in 1910. 

The advantage of paying for school buildings as built, 
and escaping interest charges if this can be done, may oe seen 
from the table printed on the preceding page. This is calculated 
for the present bonded debt of the school district, as stated in 
the Annual School Reports, and also for a 20-class-room, fire- 
proof-construction, Failing-school-type of new building, with 
bonds maturing at different periods. 

While such permanent-type buildings as the Failing school 
or the Lincoln high school, by reason of their longer usefulness 
and lower maintenance costs, might very properly be paid for 
by bonding, still, in view of the large per capita bonded debt 
of the city proper (see Chapter VI, Table 13), it is certainly 
wise for the school department to pay by annual tax for as 
much building as can reasonably be done. This policy, so long 
as it does not unduly cramp the proper development of the 
schools for which the buildings are built, is a wise one to 
follow. 

It perhaps would be wise to segregate the funds for building- 
and-site outlays from the funds for annual maintenance, as is 
suggested in Appendix A. This would give the Board of School 
Directors authority to levy certain definite and separate taxes 
each year, estimated as sufficient to meet the needs of ordinary 
growth, for the purchase of sites and for the erection of school 
buildings, and other separate rates for maintenance, instruction, 
and administration. Buildings and sites which could not be 
provided for under such a plan ought to be provided for by 
bonding, and at the same time the proper development of the 
educational work within the buildings would be guaranteed. 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 229 



Chapter XIII 

THE SCHOOL PLANT 
(Dresslar.) 

Construction Units 

Before one undertakes to measure anything with any degree 
of accuracy, he must decide on some unit of measurement. 
Fortunately there are a number of relatively fixed standards 
which should be universally applied in the construction of what 
is known in our country as public school houses. These stand- 
ards have to do with the dimensions of class-rooms, the lighting, 
ventilation, heating, blackboards, and color of the walls. They 
also include, though somewhat less exactly worked out, the 
construction of assembly rooms, stairways, floors, halls, cloak- 
rooms, toilets, baths, and water supply, the cleaning of school- 
buildings, and many other details. Local conditions, however, 
must always be considered in the application of general rules 
to any specific situation. These will be mentioned in the various 
parts of this section, and their bearing on the problems in hand 
discussed in their proper connection. 

It will be impossible in this brief report to set forth in 
detail all the reasons for the recommendations made; but it is 
hoped that the general reasonableness of the demands will 
appeal to those who read for help, not merely for criticism. 

The School-house Site 

The site selected for a school-building should be a safe 
distance from noisy factories, lumber mills, or any similar 
disturbances. For example, the Terwilliger School should never 
have been located where it is, or if the mills in the immediate 
neighborhood were located where they are after the school was 
built, the city authorities were at fault in allowing them to do 
so. The usual excuse given for locating a building too near 
such noisy, dusty places, is that the lot selected was the only 
available site. This is rarely a satisfactory excuse, for the 
State has devised means to get what is needed. Another more 
specific excuse often given is that the school-building must be 
built in the neghborhood where the children live. This also 
is rarely a convincing reason. It would be far better for the 
majority of the children to walk a half mile to a quiet place for 
;i school, than to have a school-building at their very door 
where they will be compelled to work all day assailed by noise, 
dirt and dust. A good walk to and from the school-building 
is healthful, and often more serviceable than the gymnastic 
exercises prescribed and carried out in the school-rooms. The 



230 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

plain duty of every school board is to shun noisy, smoky mills 
of every sort when selecting a site for school-buildings. 

Avoid Noisy Streets 

It is a serious mistake to build a school-house on or 
near a car line, whether this be a steam-car line or an electric 
car line. We found in Portland many school-buildings located 
on streets used for street-car lines. Some of the buildings 
are so near the car lines that not only is the noise greatly dis- 
turbing to quiet and effective work in the school, but in dry 
weather clouds of dust are swept up and some of it must neces- 
sarily be drawn into the class-rooms. On account of its humid 
climate, Portland is probably less distressed by dust than most 
of the great cities of the country; but even here, where the soil 
is light and silt-like, dust will in time be a very troublesome 
factor. Dr. Robert Hessler, who has spent many years investi- 
gating the relation of city dust to disease, has recently come 
to the conclusion that a large amount of ill-health, which cannot 
be diagnosed as catarrh, tuberculosis, or influenza, is due to 
dust. He has dared to name it coniosis, that is, ill-health result- 
ing from being "full of dust." Aside from the distress of noise 
and the dust troubles, school-children are uselessly endangered 
at intermissions, and on coming to school and going home, 
when they are compelled to congregate near car lines. Children 
cannot be as careful as adults, and all adults who read these 
lines will easily remember their own narrow escapes. Every- 
thing is to be gained, and nothing to lose by separating school- 
buildings and school-grounds at least one block from street 
car lines. I found by actual measurement that one large school- 
building, the Peninsula School, was so close to a car line, that 
several classrooms were not over 50 feet from the track. 

Naturally it is more serious to build school-buildings near 
steam-car tracks, both on account of noise and smoke and on 
account of danger. 

Care should be taken also to select streets upon which no 
heavy traffic is carried by wagons. At present this recommenda- 
tion may not make much appeal to the citizens of Portland, 
because of the tremendous use made of the river in transporta- 
tion. But the time will come very soon when much heavy 
hauling will encumber the streets, and accordingly increase the 
noise and danger. Many large school-buildings in eastern cities 
are so situated that the traffic is so annoying that good school 
work is impossible. In some cases the schools have been so 
disturbed that it seemed necessary either to close the streets, 
or to abandon parts of their school-buildings. The school 
authorities of Portland have the opportunity now to forestall 
most of such difficulties, and they will be derelict in their 
duty if they do not use every precaution to meet these future 
contingencies. 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 231 



Orientation of School Buildings 

School-buildings in the latitude of Portland should be so 
planned and so located on the lots that as many of the class- 
rooms as possible may command the east or west light. Many 
of the old buildings and some of, the newer ones have been con- 
structed with apparently no conception of the significance 
of this requirement. In order that this recommendation may 
not appear to be the result of mere personal opinion, I wish to 
enter into some detail to explain this very important demand: 

In the first place, every school-room should have the op- 
portunity of the purification afforded by direct sunshine, at 
least some part of each clear day. Warmth and moisture with- 
out sunshine furnish the best possible conditions for the growth 
of bacteria, pathogenic and non-pathogenic, and it is running 
in the very teeth of the laws of health to construct school-rooms 
which will command only a northern light exposure. Further- 
more, the north light, while it is generally well diffused and 
soft, is not so strong as either the east or west light. Especially 
is this true during the short dark days of a Portland winter. 
It is better during the long and bright days of summer, but 
this is, in the main, the vacation season, and hence the possible 
gain thereby is minimized. During the week ending May 17th, 
there were many cloudy, rainy days, and despite the fact that 
the sun rose early and set late, I did not see a class-room, de- 
pending solely on north light, which was properly lighted. 
This was especially true of those buildings in which the win- 
dows were improperly set. (See the recommendations on light- 
ing.) Very often the rooms were so dark as to cause the children 
to strain their eyes in doing the ordinary work of the school. 
For the two reasons, therefore, — lack of sunshine, and the 
dangers due to insufficient light — classrooms with north light 
should be avoided. 

At this point the reader may have concluded that because 
of abundant sunshine and strong light, class-rooms with win- 
dows opening toward the south would be the best. Were it 
not for other difficulties introduced, this conclusion would 
be justifiable. Let the reader place himself at a stationery desk, 
where he can have little opportunity to adjust himself to the 
light, and where a stream of sunshine falls across the desk, or 
somewhere in the line of his vision. He will then understand 
one of the difficulties of a south exposure. But it may be 
argued that shades can be set to cut out the direct sunshine while 
school is in session. In reply I would say this is difficult, 
without so reducing the amount of light for so much of the day 
that those pupils who sit at the desks farther removed from 
the windows will be hindered in their work. I have yet to 
see, anywhere in this country, a classroom for the elementary 



232 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



grades satisfactorily lighted by depending on south light. More- 
over, I took occasion to interview many teachers in the Port- 
land schools, working in classrooms with south windows, and 
not only found that they were often greatly disturbed by direct 
sunlight falling on the desks of the pupils near the windows, 
but also that they were not able to adjust the shades, and keep 
them adjusted, to cut out the direct sunshine and at the same 
time not darken the room too much for those seated farther 
from the windows. This was especially true in classrooms 
which had been built too wide for the height of the windows. 

East and West Lighting 

Classrooms with east exposure are generally better for 
the upper grades, because such rooms get a sunning before school 
hours, and usually offer only an hour's difficulty with direct 
sunshine, between 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning. During the 
remainder of the day the shades can all be rolled up and the 
strong light from the eastern sky admitted without any 
hindrance. 

Those classrooms facing the west are generally better 
adapted for the use of the primary grades, especially on the 
first floor, because these grades are dismissed before the after- 
noon sun would cause any serious disturbance. They can also 
be used for the upper grades with but little more trouble with 
direct sunshine than those opening toward the east. 

All classrooms facing east or west have another advantage. 
They permit the early and late sunshine tp cover almost the 
whole floor by reason of the low lying sun, and thus get a 
more general purification than even a south exposure could 
command in the latitude of any part of our country. 

To briefly recapitulate, I recommend that lots should be 
chosen, and buildings planned and located in such a way as to 
get the greatest possible number of the classrooms with east 
or west light. This recommendation is of the utmost importance 
to the health and comfort, and, therefore, to the educational 
progress of both teachers and pupils. A very large number of 
the best buildings in Portland are incorrectly lighted, simply 
because this fundamental requirement was not followed. If 
it becomes necessary (it should not often become necessary) 
to open some rooms to the north or to the south, these should 
be assigned for art rooms, manual training rooms, libraries, 
laboratories, and offices, but avoided for classrooms, especially 
for the elementary and primary grades. 

Unilateral Lighting 

Every class-room should get light from but one side, and 
this either from the east or west. It was a pleasure to find 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 



233 



that most of the better buildings of Portland complied with 
this requirement in the lighting in their class-rooms, but, as 
noted above, many of them depend on light from the wrong 
direction. The demand for unilateral lighting is simply a de- 
mand to prevent the necessity of right-handed children, — and 
we are a right-handed race — from being compelled to write 
in the shadows of their own hands. Left-handed children 
should be taught from the first to write with their right hands. 
This is not a difficult task if taken from the start, and it will 
save many annoyances all through life. 

Windows 

The glass surface for lighting a class-room should, in prop- 
erly constructed rooms, approximate one-fifth of the floor 
surface. If any special local conditions are likely to render 
the problem of lighting difficult, this ratio should be increased 
to one-fourth. That is to say, if the product of the length and 
breadth of a class-room be divided by 4, (or 5,), the quotient 
will give the amount of glazing the room will demand for 
sufficient light. This will be true, however, only on condition 
that the windows are properly placed, and this is one of the 
most difficult problems school men have to contend with. 
Architects are inclined to insist on appearances, regardless of 



Classroom 



l_J£J 



Cloak* 



Fig. 11. Proper Window-Placing in a Classroom 



the rights of children. In order to make this point clear and 
forceful, Fig. 11, showing the proper position of windows in 
a class-room, is introduced. 



234 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

The center of population of a classroom, if such a phrase 
may be used in this connection, is somewhat to the rear of the 
center of the room, because there must be an extended open 
space in front, near the teacher's desk, to give needed room. 
Hence, the center of the window area should also be to the 
rear of the center, for the sake of the proper distribution of 
light over the desks. Furthermore, the main source of light 
should be to the rear, instead of to the front of the children. 
The only light that is useful to the children, while engaged with 
books or writing paper, is that reflected from the surface of 
the pages upon which they are at work. Hence, as much "dead 
wall" is needed in front as we can get, and at the same time 
set the requisite amount of glazing. 

The almost universal tendency of architects is to set the 
windows in the middle of the wall space, leaving as much 
"dead wall" space in the rear of the room as in the front. The 
demand for symmetry and balance prevails with them against 
the demand for hygienic lighting. Most, if not all, of the newer 
and better school-buildings of Portland were constructed to 
meet this aesthetic demand of balance, instead of the rights and 
needs of the children. I have no hesitation in insisting that 
it is the duty of all architects who undertake the construction 
of our school-buildings to find some way to meet this legitimate 
requirement, even if it must be done at the expense of balance. 
All of the buildings of the type of the Lents school have wide 
windows set to occupy the central part of the wall. When the 
shades are all rolled up the light from the front window shines, 
to some degree, directly in the eyes of many of the children, 
and therefore is likely to do more harm than good. If the front 
windows were moved to the rear the change would be most 
agreeable to the children. Fortunately, in this type of building, 
which is the prevailing type in Portland, the windows are set 
four feet from the floor, and as a result the difficulty mentioned 
above is partly neutralized. I experimented with the children 
in a large number of these rooms, and found an almost universal 
preference in favor of the lighting when the lower half of the 
front window was entirely shaded with an opaque shade. 

Ribbed and Frosted Glass 

I found a somewhat general tendency to use ribbed glass 
in the upper sash, or to employ frosting to prevent the direct 
rays of the sun from disturbing the pupils while at work at 
their desks. This is, in mj^ judgment, a serious mistake. Ribbed 
glass is useful in scattering the light in rooms or halls not 
supplied with sufficient window area; but it always produces 
a rather harsh glaring effect, and is very troublesome to children 
whose eyes, for one reason or another, are weak and oversensi- 
tive. I do not hesitate to say that all of the rooms facing east, 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 235 

west, and south, in which ribbed glass is used, would be more 
acceptable with clear glass. Some of the wide north rooms are 
probably better with it. The custom of "frosting" the windows 
is wholly unjustifiable, for it keeps out much of the best light 
all the time, whereas the purpose was merely to shut out the 
glare of the direct sunshine. Proper use of the right kind of 
window shades is always to be preferred to "frosted" glass, even 
where the windows are on the south side. 

Transoms 

It is worse than a waste of money to place transoms over 
the inside doors in school-buildings. This custom is an archi- 
tectural remnant, but it clings, very much as the appendix in 
the human body. In the construction of nearly all the school- 
buildings, both old and new, much money has been spent on 
transoms which are absolutely useless, both from the practical 
and architectural point of view. After making careful inquiry 
as to their possible use, from teachers and janitors, and after 
finding that most of them fastened so that they could not be 
opened if desired, my opinion was confirmed that it is always 
better to leave them out. They add to the expense of the 
building, and serve only as places to catch dust and dirt. In 
no case did I find them clean, and in some cases they introduced 
trying reflections. 

I recommend, therefore, that in all school-buildings to be 
constructed in the future, transoms be omitted. 

Size of Class-rooms 

Many, indeed most of the classrooms of the Portland 
schools, are unnecessarily large. In the first place, a very large 
number of them are too wide. I found by measurement that at 
least 26 feet is the prevailing width in the wooden buildings. 
These classrooms would accommodate the same number of 
pupils if they were reduced 3 feet in width, and the children 
would be better off. Some, also, are 38 to 40 feet long, when 
30 feet would be much better. Due to the fact that this extra 
width has cost much money, in the construction of a large 
building, and costs more to heat, ventilate, keep in repair, 
and keep clean, I wish to give a few reasons for recommending 
that in all future plans the class-rooms should be narrowed to 
23 or 24 feet. 

(1) When class-rooms are lighted from one side only, 
as they should be, the light will not carry well across a room 
more than twice the height of the windows. In fact, in the 
latitude of Portland, where they are many dark days in winter, 
it is more than probable that a width of 24 feet will mean the 
seating of some children too far from the light to do their 
work economically and safely. 



236 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



(2) The large classrooms, almost universal in the build- 
ings now in use, require more fuel to keep them warm, more 
power to ventilate them, more work to keep them clean, and 
in every way increase the daily running expenses. 

(3) It is more difficult for children to hear, and for the 
teacher to be heard; more difficult for the teacher to speak, 
to keep the children's undivided interest, and to manage the 
school; and especially more difficult to get the requisite illumi- 
nation on the blackboard. 

(4) Finally, when the size of the room is approximately 
that recommended, there is less likelihood that the classes will 
be over-crowded, to the detriment of the work and the health 
of all concerned. 

No extended discussion need be introduced here with refer- 
ence to proper length of the room. It is enough to say that 
if it is longer than 30 feet, the children in the rear of the room 
will have difficulty in understanding the teacher, and especially 
in reading charts, maps, or what is written on the blackboard, 
in the front of the room. 

Height of Class-rooms 

The height of the classroom deserves some special com- 
ment. A large number of the better buildings were planned 
with classrooms 14 feet high. Some of the older ones, the 
Portsmouth will serve as an example, have classrooms with 
ceilings more than 15 feet above the floors. The new and 
splendid Lincoln High School is still worse. The height of 
the classrooms on the first floor of this building is 16 feet 8 
inches in the clear. That of the classrooms on the second 
floor 15 feet, while that of the third floor is 13 feet. Consider 
a moment what this means. All of the walls, pipes, ducts, and 
chimneys, of this building are 5 feet taller than any possible 
need, and this extra amount has cost many thousands of dollars, 
to no purpose whatever. Granted that the first or main floor 
of a great high school building should be dignified, a ceiling 
14 feet high would have been ample. The second story could 
have been reduced to 13 feet to advantage, while the third 
(there should never be a third story in high school buildings) 
could have been reduced 6 inches. But, while the expense of 
construction was thus uselessly increased, this is really the least 
serious part of the situation. Every time a girl climbs from 
the first floor to the third she climbs at least 5 feet higher 
than she would have been compelled to climb if the building 
had been planned with the actual demands of school life in 
mind. This is a very serious hardship to throw upon the 
thousands of girls who will attend this school during the hun- 
dreds of years it ought to stand. Furthermore, more time is 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 237 

wasted in passing, much more fuel is used daily in heating it, 
there is more expense in upkeep, and in many other ways 
difficulties and expenses have been introduced by making these 
classrooms too high. 

I wish to say, as emphatically as I can, that there is no 
need for making the height of any classroom in grammar schools 
more than 12% feet, and if the Board of Education will follow 
this rule in all future buildings, they will get better buildings 
at greatly reduced expense. 

Floors of School-Buildings 

Due to the fact that the underwriters have induced the 
authorities to permit no oil to be used on the floors, many of 
the buildings are showing the effects of this prohibition. It is 
my opinion that the janitors should be allowed to use a light 
oil, when directed in its application. The main opposition to the 
various kinds of floor oils which have been used has arisen 
from the fact that too much is used, and also that the floors 
were not properly prepared to receive it. If floors are thor- 
oughly cleaned of all dirt and dust, and the oil spread on thinly 
and evenly so that it will all be equally absorbed into the boards, 
it will not soil the skirts of the women. It, however, should 
be put on when the schoolrooms will not be in use for a few 
days, so as to give opportunity to be taken up by the floor 
boards. When so handled, the dust accumulating on the floor 
draws just enough oil out of the floor to render the under 
particles heavier, but will not saturate it. Under these condi- 
tions, and with the additional use of the sweeping compound 
in use, the floors can be swept with a brush without stirring 
up clouds of dust. Besides, the oil preserves the floors, keeps 
them from splintering, prevents them from shrinking, and makes 
them more sanitary. 

Doubtless the sole reason for the objection urged by the 
underwriters is the probable added danger from fires when oil 
is used. Theoretically there may be some truth in their con- 
tention, but the increased danger due to proper oiling is so 
slight that it should not outweigh all other considerations. 
Besides, I know of no proof to the effect that losses by fire 
have been more common in school buildings so treated than in 
those where oil has not been used. I hope, therefore, some 
understanding may be reached between the Board of Education 
and the underwriters which will permit the careful and proper 
use of some good floor dressing. Otherwise, it is only a ques- 
tion of a short time when all the wooden floors of the school- 
buildings of Portland will be in a bad condition. One thing 
certain, the added danger to the children in the schools, with 
the excellent fire drills now so well organized in all buildings, 
would be infinitesimal. 



238 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



School Desks 

The children of Portland are generally well developed, and 
large. This fact, coupled with another fact that great numbers 
are overage for their grades, renders the problem of properly 
adjusting the seats to the children somewhat difficult. I found 
many large boys, and not a few girls, that were sitting at desks 
entirely too low for them. These children, some of them the 
most promising in school, are being compelled to sit day after 
day in cramped and fatiguing postures. Others were in seats 
entirely too large for them, and could not touch the floor with 
their feet. This ought to be remedied at once. Many other 
desks, while large enough, or even too large for the children who 
occupied them, were set in a faulty manner. The seat board 
should extend under the edge of the desk about two inches, 
in order that the child may have the support of the back rest, 
and yet not be too far away from his work. Janitors and 
others who place desks, should be taught exacth how to set 
them. 

I recommend that many more adjustable desks be supplied, 
and all desks be set under the guidance of some one who knows 
exactly where and how to place them. This is a proper place 
for an extension of the supervision and authority of the Super- 
intendent of Properties. 

Blackboards 

The prevailing blackboards furnished the schools are ex- 
ceedingly unsatisfactory with reference to high light, and the 
consequent difficulty the children have of easily seeing what is 
written on these boards. They reflect so much of the light that 
they are very troublesome and trying on the eyes, both of the 
teacher and pupils. In addition, most of the blackboards are 
too green, and are not restful to the eye. The best blackboard 
material available in this country is a good quality of natural 
slate. Glass blackboards are used extensively in England, and 
when properly prepared and set are better than slate, but are 
more expensive and not as easily available as slate. 

I recommend, therefore, that in all future buildings, a good 
quality of natural slate be used, and set under careful super- 
vision. The prepared blackboards now in use in the great 
majority of schools should be supplanted by slate, and set as 
follows: In the classrooms designed for the first and second 
grades, the boards should be set not over 27 inches from the 
floor; in those rooms used for third and fourth grades, 28 
inches, for the fifth and sixth grades, 30 inches, and for seventh 
and eighth, 32 inches above the floor. In high schools, 36 inches 
above the floor is better. The blackboard on the end of the 
room near the teacher's desk is better set, for all rooms, three 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 239 

feet above the floor. The width of the board may vary from 
three to four feet, setting the narrower slabs in the rooms for 
the lower grades, and the wider ones in the rooms for the upper 
grades and high schools. The boards for the teachers of all 
grades are better when four feet wide. 

Much relief from chalk dust may be secured by setting 
and hinging in the chalk trough, narrow strips of % inch wire 
mesh, so that the chalk dust may fall through, and the erasers 
and chalk thus be kept from coming in contact with the dust. 
This will keep the erasers and chalk cleaner, and prevent the 
children from soiling their clothing and scattering this harsh, 
unwholesome dust throughout the schoolroom. 

Stair Banister 

A great majority of all the buildings have open grill-work 
banister, either of iron or wooden construction. There are two 
good reasons why it is much better to use the solid form of 
construction. In the first place, banisters of the open form are 
exceedingly difficult to keep free from dust. The janitors are 
compelled to use brushes or cloths to clean them thoroughly. 
This they have not time, or at least do not take time, to do. 
Hence they are almost invariably dusty. In the second place, 
especially in high schools and the upper grammar grades, girls 
in passing up or down are often needlessly exposed to the gaze 
of those on the floor below, and, hence, a moral situation is 
involved. A solid banister removes this difficulty. For these 
two reasons, I wish to recommend the use of solid banisters, 
similar to those now being constructed in the Jonesmore School. 

Assembly Rooms 

In most of the better buildings of the city there is an as- 
sembly room on the second floor, but it is apparently much 
more used as a gymnasium than as an assembly room. This is 
unfortunate. The assembly room ought to be used every day 
as a meeting place for all the grades above the third, if not 
for the whole school. Here is where school spirit is kindled, 
where principal and teachers may meet with all the children, 
and foster that spirit of unity and helpfulness fundamental in a 
democratic government. A few minutes devoted to chorus work, 
and some form of devotional or ethical service, will set standards 
for the day and send the children to their respective rooms in a 
mood for more serious and purposeful study. There is no 
fault to find with the gymnasium work I saw, for it was ex- 
cellent in every way. But a special room should be built 
to be used for this work, when the weather is too inclement 
to go on the playgrounds, and the assembly rooms used for 
assembly purposes. 



240 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

I earnestly recommend that in all future buildings the as- 
sembly room be on the first floor, and used daily for school 
exercises in singing, speaking, or illustrated lectures, and also 
made available for general neighborhood gatherings of an edu- 
cational or a social nature. An assembly room on the first floor 
is much more usable, safer, and more accessible than one on the 
second floor. Practically all of the newer and better school- 
buildings of this country have this room on the first floor, 
furnished with fixed seats, large stage, good light, and ample 
ventilation. This change has come about as the result of the 
changing conception of the uses to which a school-building may 
be put. 1 It stands for education in its broadest sense; not merely 
for the education of the children, but of adults as well. It is 
the only building in which all of the people, children and adults, 
have a personal interest, and in which all may meet on a foot- 
ing of equal freedom. An assembly room, so situated and 
always ready, can become the center of a tremendous influence, 
both inside and outside the ordinary school work. The logical 
neighborhood center should be the school-building. 

Floating Ceilings 

Some difficulties are being introduced in the concrete fire- 
proof buildings which ought to be corrected by the architects. 
I refer to the fact that the acoustic properties are very bad. 
So far as I could determine this rather serious difficulty is 
largely due to "floating" ceilings of cement plaster on sus- 
pended steel lathing material. Troublesome echoes are espe- 
cially noticeable in the rooms and halls of the Rose City Park 
School, and will be equally serious in the Jonesmore School 
now under construction. The ceilings of these buildings, unless 
deadened in some effective way, will always act as a sounding 
board. I took occasion while in Portland to recommend that 
precaution be taken immediately to deaden the ceilings in the 
Jonesmore School, before it was too late. I hope some econom- 
ical way can be found to relieve this difficulty in the Rose 
City Park School. Echoes were also noticed in the Fernwood 
School, though the trouble there seemed not to be so pro- 
nounced. In addition to the resonance of the ceilings, it is 
probable that the walls between the classrooms add to the 
difficulty. 

Open- Air Schools 

I was disappointed in that I did not find a single open-air 
room or school in the public schools of Portland. From what 



1 See Chapter XI, part 2, subdivision d,— Night Schools. 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 241 

I saw of the children, I am sure there are many who would be 
greatly benefited if they were taught in open-air classrooms. 
The climate of this city offers unusually good opportunities 
for the establishment and maintenance of open-air schools, with 
comparatively little expense and few precautions. It is almost 
a crime to shut up the puny, anaemic children in a hot school- 
room, where, even under the best conditions, the air cannot be 
kept as pure as it is out of doors. Open-air schools are no 
longer experiments. They have proved very beneficial under 
trying and hard conditions, as, for example, in the winter climate 
of Chicago and Boston. In the mild climate of Portland better 
results may be attained, with less trouble and fewer objections. 

The late Dr. Arthur Cabot predicted last year that "the 
time will soon come when all schools will be open-air schools." 
Whether this prophecy will prove to be true no one can say, 
but it is certain that great gain would accrue to our children 
if larger numbers were taught in the fresh air. There is a 
rapidly growing sentiment, based on sound doctrine, that if 
open-air schools are good for sick children, they would be 
better for well children. Why wait until they become anaemic, 
scrofulous, tuberculous, or even sluggish before we give them 
freedom and fresh air? Open-air schools have not only proved 
beneficial for the great majority of children whose physical 
conditions are below standard, but they have likewise proved 
that the mental life is quickened and the work of the school 
is done with more zest and better results. 

I sincerely hope, therefore, that a sane and systematic at- 
tempt will be made to introduce at least one open-air class- 
room in all the larger elementary schools of the city. Little 
expense is needed to turn in-door classrooms into fairly good 
open-air rooms. The simplest, if not the best way, is to selecl 
an east or west room, replace the present sliding sashes with a 
one-piece sash, hinging them to the top of the frame, and with 
pulleys and cords open them inward, drawing them up to the 
ceiling. This, of course, will necessitate that the frames be 
specially prepared and finished, so that when the sash is closed 
beating rains will not harm the building. Pivoted sash are also 
used, but these are frequently in the way when opened, and 
they are likely to produce troublesome reflections. (See also 
the following Chapter, Subdivision 4.) 

Temperature of the Schoolrooms 

The temperature of the classrooms was, during the two 
weeks of my examination, almost invariably too high. I found 
many rooms considerably above 70° F., some above 75°, despite 
the fact that the outside air was always lower. It is my 
opinion that the maximum temperature of the schoolrooms 
of Portland should not exceed 67° F., when fires are used. In 



242 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

fact, I feel that this is a very conservative estimate, for in the 
humid climate of this city 67° F., is relatively warmer than 70° 
F. in the dry winter-air of classrooms in most of the central 
and eastern states. The climate of Portland is similar to that of 
England in many regards, except that winter days are not quite 
so short, and the summer days are not quite so long, and less 
humid. The maximum temperature recommended for the school- 
rooms of England is 65° F. . 

If this recommendation for the reduction of the temperature 
in the Portland schools is followed, the children will be able 
to do their work with less lassitude, with keener interest, and 
with much advantage to their health. Dr. Thomas Harrington, 
Director of the Department of School Hygiene of the Boston 
Public Schools, has recently made an investigation as to the 
influence of heating and ventilation on anaemia, glandular en- 
largement, and sickness among teachers and pupils, and has 
found that among 3009 cases of pronounced anaemia, 2377 
cases were in classrooms where the temperature was 69° 
and over; 321 cases were in classrooms with a temperature 
of 68°, while only 235 cases were in classrooms with a tem- 
perature between 64° and 67° Fahrenheit, inclusive. While this 
investigation proves nothing for Portland, it is in line with the 
recommendation made. Besides, Portland is far better con- 
ditioned as to climate for maintaining a low temperature than 
is Boston. 

It is a serious handicap to the physical and mental develop- 
ment of the children of Portland to permit the temperature to 
approximate 70° F. in the classrooms, as is now commonly done. 

By investigation and inquiry I found that, in the main, 
where thermostats were installed they were set to keep the mini- 
mum at 63° and that they often permitted more than 70°. Many 
of the thermostats were not sufficiently sensitive to regulate 
within the limits of two degrees. I recommend that instead 
of being set for a minimum temperature of 68° that they be 
set for a minimum of 65°, and kept sufficiently sensitive so 
that they will never allow a higher temperature than 67°. I 
wish to recommend further that those who are in charge of 
the thermostats be strictly charged with the duty of keeping 
them in better condition, and within these limits, and that all 
schools depending on a central heating system, not now sup- 
plied with thermostats, be so equipped at once. 

Hot-air Furnaces 

The prevailing method of heating the classrooms is that 
of the hot-air furnace. There can be no serious objection 
offered to this method in the climate of Portland, providing the 
furnaces are kept in good repair, and providing also that a 
plenum-fan system of ventilation is used in connection with 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 243 

them. Those furnaces out of repair may leak, when coal is 
used for suppJ >mentary fuel, and some of the gas may pass 
into the warm air about the heater and thence into the school- 
room, especially when the fan is not running. If a good pressure 
is maintained by the fan, there is very little or no danger when 
the furnaces are in good repair, and especially when wood alone 
is used for fuel. 

The hot-air furnace system is well adapted to the climate 
of Portland, where comparatively mild humid weather prevails 
the greater part of the school year, and if rationally used will 
prove effective and fairly economical of fuel. 

In this connection, I wish to recommend that the warm-air 
ducts leading from the plenum chambers to the classrooms be 
covered with a good quality of asbestos paper, to prevent so 
much loss of heat in cold weather. I found that this pre- 
caution had been taken in only a few of the buildings. There 
would be a great saving in fuel, less work for the janitors, 
and more wholesome conditions furnished in the schoolrooms, 
if these were covered in all the buildings. Despite all a janitor 
may do basement doors are frequently open, and in cold weather 
there is opportunity for the loss of much heat through radiation 
from uncovered warm-air ducts. 

It is my opinion that high-pressure steam plants should not 
be installed in any buildings where steam power is not a prime 
desideratum. It is expensive to install, and requires, or should 
require, a licensed engineer, in order to minimize the danger 
to the children and to secure the proper care of a high-pressure 
boiler. If a detached building is used for a high-pressure 
steam heating-plant, the danger will be much reduced. A high- 
pressure steam system is often thought necessary for manual 
training buildings; but even in such buildings, electric power 
is to be preferred, and in Portland should add little or no extra 
expense to the total cost. 

One advantage of the hot-air system in a climate as gen- 
erally mild as that of Portland arises from the fact that when 
but a little artificial heat is needed to secure the temperature 
desired, such a system requires less fuel than a steam heating 
system which always requires sufficient fires to get up steam. 
However, a system of indirect steam heating insures more regular 
heat in cold weather than can easily be maintained with the use 
of a hot-air furnace. 

My observation seemed to show that if ample fan power 
were installed; if thermostats were placed in all the buildings; 
if the warm-air ducts were properly protected against rapid 
radiation; and if the thermostats were better adjusted, and per- 
sistently kept in repair, the heating systems in practically all 
of the better school-buildings of Portland are ample. Owing 
to the fact that my examinations were made in mild weather, it 
is impossible for me to speak with absolute certainty on this 



244 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

point. Janitors, though, generally agreed that they were able 
to meet the demands in the coldest weather. In those buildings 
depending on gravity to introduce warmed air into the class- 
rooms, even heating is not possible because of the fact that 
open windows will have to be depended on for ventilation. 

Ventilation of Schoolrooms 

Contrary to the common belief, it is more difficult to 
ventilate in a satisfactory way a closed schoolroom in a mild 
climate than the same sort of a room in a cold climate. In the 
former case more reliance must be placed on a fan, for the 
difference between the temperature of the outside air and that 
desirable in a classroom is so slight that comparatively little 
aid is given through the force of gravity. In the latter case 
the pressure from without toward the warm schoolroom is great 
enough to aid materially in the introduction of fresh air. All 
schools of the type now in use in Portland must, therefore, be 
supplied with adequate fans to drive in the air, and ample 
outlets from the schoolrooms to secure sufficiently rapid change 
of air. Some of the buildings are not supplied with fans at all, 
and others are supplied with fans of insufficient capacity to 
meet the demands, without running them at too rapid a rate. 
The ventilation at the Chapman School was insufficient on the 
day of my visit, and seemed to be due either to the lack of 
fan capacity, or to errors in the construction of ducts leading 
to the classrooms, or to both of these combined. The same 
criticism might be applied with equal force to several other 
schools. 

I earnestly recommend that in all buildings erected in 
the future larger fans be installed, and larger ducts, inlets and 
exits, be used, so that abundance of fresh air may be secured 
with the fans running at a moderate speed. More care should be 
taken on shaping the mouth of the inlet duct so that the air will 
be evenly and quickly spread over the roms without creating 
drafts in particular parts of the rooms. One reason for com- 
plaint on account of drafts in cold weather is due to the ther- 
mostats chiefly used. They either call for warm air or cold 
air. When cold air is driven in the difference in temperature 
is quickly noticed by those on the farther side of the room. 
This difficulty can be overcome either by regulation through 
tempering coils, if steam is used, or through a tempering furnace 
if the hot-air system is used. Various forms of mixing dampers 
are also in use to overcome this objection. If the air driven in 
is well tempered, there is little danger from such drafts as are 
felt at times from fans. The fact is the body is in constant 
need of a fresh air bath to keep it in good condition and to 
prevent that heavy, stuffy feeling, partly due to the accumula- 
tion of heat in the tissues. 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 245 

In all buildings to be erected in the future I would urge 
that the wire shields on both the inlet ducts and the exit ducts 
be left off, for they offer far more friction to the incoming 
and outgoing air than one would imagine. Invariably, when 
the entrance to the exit duct is covered with one of these wire 
screens, the lower part of the duct is the gathering place for all 
kinds of lint, dust, and dirt, the flotsam and jetsam of a busy 
schoolroom. The janitors cannot get it out without going to a 
great deal of trouble, and this they rarely have time to do. In 
every classroom in Portland where these screens are used there 
is an unsightly, dirty place. In all buildings constructed in the 
future it would be better to finish the opening of the exit ducts 
so that they would not call for any screen to make their ap- 
pearance acceptable, and so that they may be kept clean and 
wholesome without difficulty. The inlet ducts should be finished 
with gratings so constructed as to cause the incoming air 
current to be deflected toward the ceiling and ends of the 
classroom, and thus well distributed over the room. Such grat- 
ings will suffice for all the protection these ducts will need. 

There has always been some objection on the part of 
teachers and patrons to the plenum-system of ventilation, and 
these criticisms have often been justifiable. Unless the fans 
are large enough to deliver abundance of fresh air, to distribute 
it impartially, and to keep it moving in the schoolroom, good 
and satisfactory ventilation cannot be accomplished. But there 
is a psychological effect that counts for much in the judgment 
of teachers and pupils with regard to the efficiency of this 
form of ventilation. They imagine the air is bad because the 
windows and doors must be closed. This suggestion can only 
be overcome by good ventilation and experience. Whenever, 
however, there is persistent complaint, I have found that gen- 
erally there is some real ground for it. If 2000 cubic feet of 
pure air per pupil is supplied and well distributed each hour 
in the classrooms, complaints generally cease, and the children 
will be well cared for, providing the temperature maintained 
is not too high. The effect of overheating is often mistaken 
for lack of ventilation. Under the conditions I have sug- 
gested, with large fans and ample inlet and exit ducts, the 
plenum-fan system is the best method now available for school- 
room ventilation. 

The ventilation of the toilets and urinals of all the older 
buildings, and many of the newer ones, is very bad. In fact, 
most of them get no ventilation save through doors and windows. 
In many cases the attempts made to ventilate them through ducts 
leading to the chimneys are simply delusions. These means 
are not effective. In some cases this is serious, and will be 
spoken of more at length under the topic on toilets and urinals. 



246 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Fresh Air Intakes 

Most of the better schools, receive their fresh air from a 
point well above ground, and this is a wise precaution. But the 
fresh air passages between the fans and the outer air in many 
of the buildings were used for storage of paint cans, oil cans, 
old benches, and various other kinds of debris. This ought not 
to be allowed at all; for this passage should be absolutely clean, 
and free from anything that would retard the flow of air toward 
I lu- fans. Also, many of these passages or rooms for the fresh 
air intake wore not properly enclosed, and as a result many 
classrooms are being partly supplied with air from the base- 
ments, instead of from the proper source. I found one building 
where the janitor had the door leading from the basement to 
this fresh air chamber propped open, so, as he said, he could 
hear the fan running. Naturally, he was furnishing a large 
per cent of basement-air to the classrooms. Such lack of knowl- 
edge on the part of a janitor is a good illustration of the need 
of a course of training for janitors. 

I wish to recommend, therefore, that the fresh air intake 
rooms be kept clean; that they be made practically air-tight, 
from I lie other parts of the basement; that as far as possible 
the fresh air be taken from the level of the second floor, as it 
is in the main now taken; and that, other conditions equal, it 
he taken from the south or east side of the building. If this 
last suggestion is used in future buildings, a surprising amount 
of fuel will be saved, for the air on the south side of a building 
is generally several degrees warmer in winter than that on the 
north side. 

Registers in the Floors 

It is helpful to have some form of register* in halls, both 
for heating the halls and for warming the feet and drying the 
clothing of the children. But it is a mistake to make these in 
the floor, for mud and dirt will fall from the children's shoes, 
and, after drying, it will be carried upward by the currents of 
warm air and scattered in the rooms. A better method of plac- 
ing the registers is to open them along the front side of benches 
fastened to the walls. They can then be used for warming the 
feet and drying the clothes of the pupils, without introducing 
dust and dirt into them. 

Toilets and Urinals 

The form of toilets mostly in use are those depending on the 
automatic discharge of a common tank for a number of seats. 
Generally these seats are placed back to back across the toilet 
room, and, as stated earlier in this part of the report, are very 
poorly ventilated. 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 247 

Without going into the details of describing these, there are 
certain specific recommendations which I wish to make for fu- 
ture buildings, and for refitting some of the buildings now in use: 

(1) Those basement rooms selected for the toilets should 
command abundance of light, and, if possible, abundance of 
direct sunshine. The buildings should be planned with this re- 
quirement in mind. 

(2) The toilet stalls and urinals should be set in single rows 
around the walls and not in double rows across the room. This 
method will make the supervision a great deal easier, render 
the room much lighter, much easier to keep clean, and discourage 
;i vast amount of carelessness. This method, however, under 
certain conditions, requires slightly larger rooms, and more 
appropriate glazing. 

(3) The height of the walls of the toilet stalls need not be 
over 5 feet. The height of most of those in use is 7 feel or more. 
This is not only a useless expense, hut it is a harmful expense. 
Stalls of this height obstruct the light, render ventilation more 
difficult, and make it very much harder for the janitor to keep 
them clean. 

(4) All stalls should be provided with a short door, not 
over 3 feet high, set about 10 inches above the floor, and so 
hinged that it will swing in when the stall is not in use. This 
will afford privacy, without keeping the stalls closed when not 
in use, and greatly facilitate inspection and sanitation. 

(5) Some of the flush tanks in use are too large and do not 
flush often enough to keep the receiving troughs clean. Only 
sufficient water to sweep them clean should he discharged at 
one lime. Some of the largest tanks could be safely reduced, if 
at the same time they were set to discharge oftener. This change 
would require no more water, and would keep the rooms more 
sanitary. In Germany, where this type of toilets is frequently 
used, the flushing is often regulated by clock-work, so that the 
flushings are more frequent during intermissions than at other 
times. 

(0) The urinal troughs in use are bad, and this system 
should not be installed in any future buildings. The best now on 
the market for schools are ventilated downward, and the sides 
and backs made of hammered or "carrara" glass. Glass does 
not absorb the urine, is cosily kept clean, and will wear in- 
definitely. The metal partitions now in use cannot be kept from 
corroding and accumulating solid material, which soon becomes 
offensively odorous. Much relief could be secured by cutting 
off the lower parts of these metal sides. 

(7) At least two sizes of seats should be set in each toilet 
room of future buildings, so that both the smaller and the 
larger children could be decently provided for. In most of the 
toilets in the present buildings the little people are compelled 



248 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

to use seats too high for them. The different sizes should be 
segregated, for reasons not necessary to state. 

(8) In the buildings now supplied with urinal troughs some 
benches should be supplied for the small boys to stand on, for 
in many of the buildings they are set too high for the smaller 
boys. 

(9) In future buildings adequate provisions should be made 
to ventilate all seats and urinals. In the older types of toilet 
fixtures, largely used in the Portland schools, direct and com- 
plete ventilation is impossible because the pipes are too small, 
often very long, and dependence is entirely placed on the heat 
from the furnace chimney to create a draft in the outlet ad- 
joining. If these ventilation flues for the toilets could be heated 
directly, or if an exhaust fan were installed in them just above 
the intake of the ducts from the toilets, the sanitary conditions 
of the toilets would be greatly improved. 

(10) Some schools are over supplied with seats and urinals, 
while others have not enough. I found in the Holman school 
that the number supplied was totally inadequate. This condi- 
tion should be remedied immediately. It is impossible to cal- 
culate with exactness just how many toilet fixtures are needed 
for a given number of pupils, because the age of the pupils is a 
large element in the demand. Besides, where many children go 
home for their luncheon, another variation in the demand- is 
introduced. Likewise, fewer are needed when the programmes 
are so arranged that the classes are not all dismissed at recess 
at the same time. But approximately one seat for 15 girls, and 
one for 25 boys, will not miss the requirement far. The number 
of urinals for the boys should be greater, say one for 20 boys. 
These figures, as indicated above, are not applicable in all cases, 
but will serve as a helpful rule for general guidance. 

(11)- The ventilated and automatic washout seats (those in 
which the seat-lid springs back and flushes the bowl as soon 
as the child arises) are the best. However, these need frequent 
adjustment to make sure of flushing. I found a number of this 
type out of adjustment, and unflushed after use. The principals 
should frequently inspect all toilets, and report immediately 
any disarrangement. 

(12) In some of our schools trouble from the spread of 
venereal diseases has been met with, and for this reason the 
open-front type of toilet seat should be used in all future con- 
struction. 

(13) It is but fair to report that while many of the toilet 
rooms are improperly lighted, supplied with the older types of 
fixtures, badly set, and improperly ventilated, the janitors for 
the most part are keeping them as clean and sanitary as condi- 
tions will permit. 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 249 

Baths 

Aside from the high school building, I found little or no 
attempt to supply baths in the school buildings of Portland. I 
wish to recommend that, especially in those schools utilized by 
the children dwelling in the more congested districts of the 
cit} r , such, for example, as the Chapman, Couch, and Failing 
schools, that provision be made for shower baths, and that the 
children be offered the opportunity and the time to bathe at 
least once a week. This will do many of them more real good 
than the same amount of time spent in any other way, and it 
will be of great educational value to both pupils and parents. It 
would not be an expensive undertaking to install shower baths 
in many of the large basements already provided. School baths 
are no longer in the experimental stage. 

Vacuum Cleaners 

School-room dust is not only disagreeable, but dangerous, 
and as rapidly as possible vacuum cleaners should be installed 
in all buildings. Some tested form of central vacuum suction 
should be employed, so that the dust can be discharged either 
through water or carried off through a high chimney. Vacuum 
cleaners, however, will not prove acceptable or satisfactory un- 
less the pipes are properly placed, and a strong, regular suction 
produced. I wish to recommend, in as forceful a manner as 
possible, that a suction pipe be installed near the floor line in 
the middle of one end of each class-room, preferably the end 
where the teacher's desk is located, so as to make it unnecessary 
to use a long, heavy hose, and also to make it easier for the 
janitor to move along the aisles between the desks. The cost of 
installation will be some greater with this method, but by reason 
of reduction of friction in the short hose the effectiveness will 
be much increased, and the labor of the janitor greatly reduced. 
The main expense of a vacuum cleaner is the running expense, 
and it is good economy to spend more to save much. Besides, 
the work will be better done. The older method of locating 
the suction pipes in the halls has proven entirely unsatisfactory, 
and measurably ineffective. In most of the Portland buildings 
having vacuum-cleaner appliances there are entirely too few 
hose attachments, 

I noticed that in some of the buildings the janitors had 
fitted one or more of the suction pipes with devices to free the 
chalk erasers of dust. This is to be commended, and such jan- 
itors deserve recognition for this kind of service. 

The use of feather dusters in school buildings should be pro- 
hibited. They serve only to stir up the dust, and thereby make 
the school rooms more unwholesome. Dust cloths should be used 
instead. The janitors should be furnished with an abundance 



250 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

of some form of "dustless dust cloths" and "dustless wall mops," 
and be required to use them. 

Drinking Fountains 

Practically all of the buildings are supplied with drinking 
fountains. Most of them are satisfactory. Some are insanitary 
by reason of the fact that the stream does not rise high enough 
above the cup to prevent the children's lips from touching them. 
Those being installed by the department mechanics are very 
good, but in some buildings need adjustment to insure an equally 
strong flow from all the cups. Some are too hard to press; 
others shoot a large stream on slight pressure. 

Slates 

To find the continued use of slates in the schools of Port- 
land was wholly unexpected. There was a time when slates 
were a necessity, but that time has long since passed. The cost 
of paper and lead pencils is now so small that most cities in- 
clude them in the regular list of supplies, and furnish them to 
all the children of the elementary grades free. Slates are at 
best noisy, dirty, unsanitary, and, at the present time, wholly 
unjustifiable. Besides, better teaching can be done with the 
use of paper and lead pencil or pen, for the use of paper for 
written work of all kinds puts a premium upon neatness and 
carefulness which slates cannot command. I have no hesitation, 
therefore, both in the interest of cleanliness and sanitation, as 
well as in the interest of better teaching, to recommend that the 
use of slates in the schools be abandoned immediately. The 
Board of School Directors ought to supply, without cost to the 
children, an ample supply of paper, lead pencils, pens and ink, 
for all of the elementary schools. (See also Chapter VIII, 7.) 

Janitor Service 

The janitor of a modern school building is, next to the prin- 
cipal, perhaps the most important officer in the school. The 
time has passed when any one who is sufficiently strong to 
sweep and build fires should be considered capable of being a 
good janitor. With the advent of modern systems of heating, 
ventilation, sweeping, humidification, disinfection, and general 
oversight of buildings, an intelligent and trained man is needed. 
Unless a janitor understands thoroughly the theory and con- 
struction of thermostats, the use of fans, the best method of 
sweeping, dusting, and general sanitation, he cannot render ef- 
ficient service, however willing he may be. A modern janitor 
needs specific training, not only in the tricks of his trade, but in 
the theoretical and practical understanding of all these things. 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 251 

A Janitors' School 

I wish to recommend, therefore, that the Superintendent of 
Properties be given charge of the school janitors, and that he be 
instructed to take immediate steps to organize a sort of janitor 
school, where those who are already in the work, and those who 
are making applications for position for such service, may be 
carefully instructed in the duties of this very important work. 
The following brief suggestions regarding the establishment of 
such training courses may be of some help: 

(1) Regular meetings of janitors should be held at least 
once a month, at designated school buildings, and a regular pro- 
gramme for their instruction should be outlined. 

(2) This course of instruction should consist of: (a) Lec- 
tures by the Superintendent and Medical Inspector on such sub- 
jects as the following: The danger of dust; the selection and 
placing of school desks; the care of blackboards; the disinfection 
of toilets and school rooms; the general management of base- 
ments; the care of the health of a janitor; the proper tempera- 
ture of a class-room and why. (b) Technical instruction by the 
school engineer or department mechanic on the following sub- 
jects: How to build fires and stoke economically; the theory 
and supervision of thermostats; the theory and management of 
the various systems of ventilation; plumbing fixtures; sweep- 
ing compounds and how to make them; oiling floors; manage- 
ment of fans; the disposal of ashes and cinders; the management 
of vacuum cleaners; sweeping and dusting; protection against 
fires, etc. (c) "Tricks of the trade," set forth and illustrated 
by the most efficient janitors in the service, (d) Lectures by 
selected principals on: Fire drills; the care of school property; 
the general management of boys; the moral influence of janitors; 
opportunities of a janitor; the care of playgrounds, etc. (e) Dis- 
cussions of the latest and best information relating to the work 
of janitors, gathered from magazines and books. 

A good supply of literature and helps should be furnished 
by the Board of School Directors. 

The above suggestions embody only a few of the topics 
which might be outlined. But with some such a plan as this put 
into operation, not only much expense could be saved, but a 
much higher degree of efficiency in the janitor force could be 
secured. Provision for such training would also give the Board 
of School Directors the opportunity to demand professional 
preparation for their work of all applicants for janitorial 
service. In a word, it would introduce a system of selecting 
the fittest, and take the office out of the field of politics and 
personal pull. (See also Chapter XI, Part 2, h.) 

In addition I wish to say that an intelligent, well-trained 
janitor should get better pay than one who, other things equal, 



252 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



has nothing to commend him but ordinary intelligence and phy- 
sical strength. One element, entering into the selection of a 
janitor, should always be that of moral character and ability to 
understand children and manage them acceptably. Those jan- 
itors who serve most helpfully should be remunerated accord- 
ingly. 

Miscellaneous Recommendations 

1. The children of the Ladd school should be protected in 
the use of the park and the street next the building for play- 
grounds. The police should be asked to keep all automobiles 
and wagons off of this street while the children are at play, dur- 
ing intermissions. This will hinder public rights very little, 
because the street on the opposite side of the park can be used 
at such times with very little or no inconvenience, and the chil- 
dren will then be protected. During my visit to this school 
many children were endangered by rapidly moving automobiles. 
Children have rights, as well as adults. 

2. If a roller-skating track of 12 or 15 feet in width were 
constructed of concrete around the two parts of the playground 
at the new Failing school, and at least one part of the play- 
ground of the Irvington and the Clinton Kelly schools, it would 
bring a great joy and service to the children of these neighbor- 
hoods, not only during intermissions, but after school hours 
and during vacations. The Failing school grounds in particular 
could then be used much more helpfully as a recreational center 
for all the young people of the neighborhood. The same sug- 
gestion could be profitably applied to the playgrounds of a 
number of other schools. 

3. I would like to suggest that advantage be taken of the 
deep ravine befween the Creston school building and the new 
playground to construct an open-air or Greek amphitheater. 
Comparatively little expense would be involved, and one of the 
most useful and beautiful structures in the whole city would re- 
sult. It would serve for many school purposes and social center 
activities, and would certainly be in demand by the city as a 
whole. 

4. The Lownsdale and Couch schools are unfit for school 
use, and should be abandoned as soon as possible. 

5. I commend the form of coved baseboards used in the 
Fernwood school and recommend that this form of construc- 
tion be introduced in all future buildings. 

6. Something should be done to deaden the halls in the 
Jefferson high school building. They are very noisy. This 
building was badly constructed, and will eventually require ex- 
pensive repairs. 

7. The Fulton Park site is so near to two car lines that the 
Board of School Directors should exchange it, if possible, for a 



CHAP. XIII. THE SCHOOL PLANT 253 

site further removed from the growing disturbance and danger 
that will surely come with increasing traffic. 

Advisory Educational Committee on Buildings 

Finally, I would like to suggest that a small committee, say 
of five, composed of two principals, a teacher from the primary 
grades, one from the upper grades, and one from the high schools, 
be appointed to advise with the Superintendent and the architect 
when plans for new buildings are under consideration. By se- 
lecting those especially qualified for the work of this commit- 
tee, and giving them opportunity to make some special study 
of school hygiene, they could render valuable service to the 
city. 

Note: The scientific reasons upon which many of the ar- 
guments of this chapter are based could not of necessity be set 
forth in full here. For these the reader is referred to a work 
by the author of this chapter, entitled School Hygiene. — Director. 



254 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Chapter XIV 

MEDICAL INSPECTION; HYGIENE TEACHING; PHYSICAL 
TRAINING; SPECIAL SCHOOLS FOR DEFECTIVES 

(Prefatory Note) 

This report is based on an investigation of one week's 
duration. All the information available was secured from the 
chief medical officer, three of the four school medical exam- 
iners, the school nurse, the director of physical training, and 
the superintendent of schools. This was supplemented by con- 
versations with nine school principals and at least forty-four 
teachers, all of whom expressed themselves as frankly and fully 
as time would permit. 

The writer was present during the routine medical exam- 
ination of about 400 children, in three different types of schools, 
and saw, altogether, about 2,400 children in class-rooms, phy- 
sical training drills, and in exit or entrance marches. 

Seven recitations in hygiene were observed in whole or in 
part, besides four physical training exercises. The schools vis- 
ited were selected as representative of various social and hy- 
gienic conditions. It is believed that no amount of further 
investigation would have altered materially the substance of 
the report which follows. 

It is not possible to set forth in this report the facts and 
arguments of general nature on which the criticisms and rec- 
ommendations are based. These can be obtained from the fol- 
lowing three books by the writer: 

1. The Hygiene of the School Child. 

2. Health Work in the Schools (written with the assistance 
of Dr. E. R. Hoag) ; and 



3. The Teacher's Health. 



Lewis M. Terman. 



1. THE SYSTEM OF MEDICAL INSPECTION 

Two Types of School Health Service 

In the schools of the United States there are two main types 
of school medical service. In order to make clear the signifi- 
cance of certain criticisms and recommendations, to be made 
in this report, it is necessary to describe these briefly and to set 
forth their respective aims and procedures. 

1. The first is "medical inspection" carried on chiefly for 
the detection and control of transmissible diseases. This is the 
form in which school medical work everywhere had its begin- 
ning. In nearly all cases, it was merely an extension of the 
functions of the local board of health. The cost is very small, 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 255 

averaging in the United States about 13 cents per year for each 
child. Medical inspection of this type has unquestionably proved 
its value. It is the primitive type of school medical service, 
however, and has been superseded in most of the larger and 
many of the smaller cities of the country by the type of work 
about to be described. 

2. The second kind of school medical service goes beyond 
mere "medical inspection" and has for its purpose the "health 
supervision" of schools in a broad sense. It aims not only to 
control contagious diseases, but also to discover every form of 
physical defectiveness which may exist among the pupils, to 
bring about, by means of an efficient follow-up service, the cor- 
rection of as many of these as possible, and to supervise the 
activities of the school to the end of preventing conditions of 
ill-health. Defects of teeth, throat, eyes, nose, cervical glands, 
ears, nutrition, heart, lungs, nervous system, and skeletal de- 
velopment are carefully sought out. 

This type of health supervision includes in its scope physical 
training and playground activities, medical control of athletics, 
physical examinations of candidates for teaching positions, su- 
pervision of the school programme from the point of view of 
hygiene, the segregation of defective children in special schools 
(open-air schools, schools for the deaf, blind, crippled, feeble- 
minded, etc.), home education in matters of hygiene, expert ad- 
vice in regard to school-house construction and sanitation, be- 
sides many other lines of work more or less preventive in nature. 

Health supervision of the type just outlined is usually under 
the direction of a physician of special training and equipment, 
who gives his whole time to the work. The annual cost of such 
a system is, at least, 50 cents per pupil, but measured by results 
it is by far the cheapest form of school medical service. 

Main Features of the Portland System 

With minor exceptions, Portland's school medical service 
belongs distinctly to the first type. It is carried on by the board 
of health. Four half-time school medical examiners are em- 
ployed (three hours daily for five days a week), a nurse for full 
time, and a dentist for one day each week (Saturdays). The 
total annual expense is about $3,250, or a little over 10 cents 
per child. The emphasis is obviously on the control of con- 
tagious diseases, the eradication of parasites, and upon securing 
treatment for the worst cases of adenoids, tonsils and decayed 
teeth. 

Notwithstanding the restricted scope of the work, as organ- 
ized, it is performing a service which is worth many times its 
cost. At the same time, it should be regarded merely as a 
beginning, by no means as a final accomplishment. 



256 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Nature of the Medical Examinations Given 

Under the present system these can be nothing more than 
superficial inspections. Each half-time medical examiner has 
from 5,000 to 7,000 children under his charge and is expected 
to make the entire rounds of his district in from one to two 
months. This necessitates the inspection of children at the 
rate of about 200 to 400 for each half day. 1 A thorough ex- 
amination once a year, or even once in two years, would result 
in more good than a large number of superficial inspections. 

The method employed in the examinations is to have the 
pupils of a room march in single file by the physician, who 
stops each long enough to permit inspection of the hands, arms, 
and hair. Then the physician gives a hasty glance into the 
mouth and throat, and the pupil passes on. Cases of itch and 
pediculosis, also extreme cases of obstructed nasal breathing 
and dental decay, are listed by the teacher at the examiner's 
request, and reported to the parent on a card provided for the 
purpose. 

No examination is made for defects of heart, lungs, nutri- 
tion, general development, hearing, vision, etc., or for spinal 
curvature, flat foot or other orthopedic defects. 2 Teeth are not 
reported unless their condition is rather bad, and the milder 
cases of obstructed nasal breathing seem to escape attention 
sometimes. 

In one room where I was present during the inspection no 
child was reported (at least on this particular occasion) for 
defective teeth. After the departure of the medical examiner I 
looked into the mouth of each child in this room and did not 
find a reasonably clean set of teeth, or a single child free from 
dental decay. Most children had from three to six teeth badly 
decayed, one of them fourteen. Perhaps children in this room 
had been reported for defective teeth at previous inspections, 
but if so, little or nothing had ever come of it. On this occa- 
sion, however, the inspector reported several children for "nits," 
several for dirty neck or hands, and one for tonsils. The room 
in question was in one of the poorest sections of the city. The 
examiner himself stated that not far from 75 per cent of the 
children in this school have adenoids or diseased tonsils. Anae- 
mia was evident on every hand. 

There is no intent to criticise the medical examiners. Par- 
asites naturally get first attention, for a school so afflicted is 



1 Adequate examinations cannot be made more rapidly than 
20 to 40 per half day. 

2 It should be added, however, that sometimes children sus- 
pected by the teachers of having visual or auditory defect are 
given a special examination. Obviously, only a negligible pro- 
portion of the enrollment can receive such examinations. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 257 

not a livable place. As regards neglect of the less obvious de- 
fects, nothing else could be expected. Where there is time 
neither in examinations nor in follow-up work for attention to 
more than a small proportion of the defects, ordinary human 
sympathy insures that the severe or advanced defects will be 
looked after first. This is only natural. It means, however, that 
the efforts are largely misspent. Defects should be remedied 
at the earliest possible moment. It is unwise to neglect adenoids 
until the child's face has become deformed, his body stunted, 
and his mind dulled. Teeth that have been neglected until eight 
or ten are decayed present a hopeless problem. The same is 
largely true of other kinds of defectiveness. Failure to make 
annual hearing tests means that many curable cases of partial 
deafness will go untreated. If annual tests of vision are not 
made the eyes and nervous system of many children will be 
wrecked. 

It is evident that routine inspection like that just described 
does not come under the head of "expert" work. It can be done 
just as efficiently by specially trained nurses as by the average 
physician, and is so done in several of the best school systems 
of the country. Much of it could be done by the teachers them- 
selves after suitable instruction. 

2. DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 
Results Secured 

It is taken for granted that the management of contagious 
diseases is satisfactory. The methods employed do not differ 
materially from those in a majority of American cities. 

As regards common physical defects, the case is different. 
As already explained, this is in part due to the lack of oppor- 
tunity for a complete physical examination. Equally fatal is 
the fact that only one school nurse is employed for nearly 30,000 
children. Ideally, there should be a nurse for every 2,000 chil- 
dren. Each of two principals stated that the entire time of 
one nurse should be available for her own school. Two other 
principals said that they could use half the time of one nurse. 

So slow is the average parent to act upon the examiner's 
recommendation that thousands of home visits need to be made 
each year in a city the size of Portland. Medical inspection, 
without adequate follow-up service, amounts to little more than 
inspection. At present, the follow-up work devolves largely upon 
the teachers. These evidently have accomplished considerable, 
though certainly only a fraction of what an adequate supply of 
nurses would accomplish. 

In a large proportion of cases the matter ends with the no- 
tification of parents. It is impossible to state the actual or 



258 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

even approximate percentage of children receiving the medical 
attention recommended, for the reason that no attempt is made 
to secure records. Urged to venture a guess on this point, one 
of the medical examiners estimated that probably one-fourth 
to one-half of the parents responded, another medical examiner 
estimated one-half to two-thirds, while principals and teachers 
gave estimates varying from one-tenth to three-fourths. The 
proportion must vary greatly in the different schools according 
to the prevailing social and economic conditions of the parents, 
but in no case have we the facts necessary to enable us to meas- 
ure the efficiency of the system in turns of results. 

One index of the efficiency of a system of health supervision 
is the proportion of children wearing glasses. Statistics of 
visual defects collected from many hundreds of thousands of 
school children in diverse parts of the world prove that the per 
cent of school children with sub-normal vision is much the same 
everywhere. This always falls between 15 and 30 per cent. 
The proportion who really need glasses, however, is less than 
this, ordinarily not far from 10 to 12 per cent. Of about 2.400 
children whom I saw in the Portland schools, only a fraction 
over 2 per cent wore glasses, most of these in the upper grades. 
On the most liberal estimate, not over one-fourth of the Port- 
land children who should be wearing glasses are doing so. 

In almost every class there are several cases of extreme 
dental neglect, and from one to three or four cases of neglected 
nasal obstruction. Adenoids and enlarged tonsils seem unusually 
numerous in the Portland schools. One of the examiners esti- 
mated the incidence as high as 50 per cent for the entire city. 
Judging from 200 or more throats into which I looked, this es- 
timate appears to me as none too high. 

Records and Reports 

These are altogether unsatisfactory. There are no records 
on what should be regarded the main point, viz., the action 
taken by parents after notification of defects. The medical ex- 
aminers report daily to the central office the number of pupils 
examined, numbers of defective pupils found, number of cases 
of pediculosis, measles, scarlet fever, chicken pox, etc., also 
number listed for adenoids, tonsils, etc. These are summarized 
monthly in the reports of the health officer. The two sample 
reports given on the opposite page are illustrative. 

It will be noted that pediculosis, measles, chicken pox, etc., 
are reported specifically, while obstructed breathing, discharg- 
ing ears, defective eyes, teeth, etc., are lumped together in a 
group called "miscellaneous," as though they were minor mat- 
ters. This illustrates a very common misplacement of emphasis. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 259 



Space does not permit us to point out all the defects of the record 
system in use. It is wholly bad. 

Table 24 
Health Officers' Monthly Reports 
Cases. Sept., 1911. March, 1913. 

No. of pupils examined 16,882 19,729 

No. of defective pupils found 225 1,396 

No. of cases of pediculosis found 126 261 

No. of cases of scarlet fever found.... 

No. of cases of diphtheria found 

No. of cases of chicken pox found 2 8 

No. of cases of measles found 

No. of pupils vaccinated 

Miscellaneous 1,127 

The value of a system of medical inspection depends inti- 
mately upon its bookkeeping methods. The following are some 
of the important considerations: 

1. There should be an individual health card for each pupil. 
This should go with the pupil from grade to grade. It should 
contain the complete data for each annual medical examination, 
together with note of action taken upon recommendations. This 
card should be a complete health history of the child from the 
beginning to the end of his school life. It should be kept in the 
school building where the child attends, and a copy may be kept 
in the central office. 

In the registration of data explicitness should be the rule. 
For example, the record of a defective ear should show whether 
it is a case of ear discharge or something else. The eyes should 
be recorded separately. Squint should be designated specifically, 
and so on with all other sorts of defects. 

2. The general reports (monthly, annual, etc.) should also 
be explicit, and should conform to ordinary statistical require- 
ments. For example, it should avoid such procedures as stat- 
ing the number of defects found, without indicating the num- 
ber of children furnishing them, or giving per cent of defects 
without indicating what the per cent is a per cent of. To il- 
lustrate, the Portland examiners report under the heading, "num- 
ber of defective pupils found," from 2 per cent to 6 per cent 
of those examined. But there is nothing to tell us whether these 
are new cases of defectiveness not found before, or whether 
they are largely made up of old cases, reported over and over 
each month. 

The general report should avoid lumping together defects 
of different significance. The common and the rare, the pri- 
mary and the secondary, curable and incurable, chronic and 
acute, the grave and the unimportant, should not be confused. 
The reports should be so planned that they will throw some light 



260 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

on the relation of the various kinds of defects to each other, 
their dependence upon age, and their influence upon school 
progress, etc. They should be comprehensible to the public. 
They should show how many cases were cured, improved, by 
what agencies cared for, etc. 

The individual health card should combine the best features 
of the Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Meridian (Conn.) cards. The 
nurse's report should be modeled after that used in Philadelphia. 

Limited Scope of the WorA- 

That the scope of the work is very restricted has already 
been emphasized. To give a better idea of the real field for the 
activities of a school health department it may be well to esti- 
mate the probable amount of physical defectiveness among the 
30,000 school children of Portland. The following estimates 
are based on statistics from millions of school children from 
different parts of the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia 
and other countries. The estimates given are minimum figures, 
and hold, we may be certain, everywhere. They are exceeded 
even in such good residence cities as Los Angeles, Pasadena, 
Berkeley, and Oakland. 

Of Portland's 30,000 children not far from 
10# (3,000) are poorly nourished or anaemic; 
50# (15,000) have seriously defective teeth; 
15# (4,500) have or have had obstructed nasal breathing; 
10# (3,000) have enlarged cervical glands, many of which are 

tuberculous. 
50# (15,000) have been infected at least once with tuberculosis, 
one-fifth of whom (or one-tenth of all) will probably die 
of the disease; 
10# (3,000) have vision defective enough to require correction 
by glasses; 
5# (1,500) have seriously defective hearing, one-fifth of whom 

(1# of all) are at least nine-tenths deaf; 
5# (1,500) have spinal curvature or some other orthopedic de- 
fect likely to interfere with health; 
2$ (600) have organic heart disease; 
5# (1,500) are "nervous" or predisposed to some form of 

nervous disorder; 
\i (300) are so mentally backward that their intelligence will 
never go beyond that which is normal for the twelve- 
year-old child; 
\i of the boys (150) and 2i of the girls (600) stutter or have 
some other speech defect; 
50# (15,000) do not use a tooth brush with needed regularity; 
90# (27,000) do not know how to use a tooth brush properly; 
10# to 20# (3,000 to 6,000) have toothache frequently; 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 261 

10# to 15# (3,000 to 4,500) sleep in a bedroom with no window 
open; 

20# (6,000) sleep from one to two hours less per day than chil- 
dren of their age should sleep; 

60# (18,000) drink one or more cups of tea or coffee per day; 

50^ to 75# (15,000 to 22,500) have no fruit for breakfast; 

10# to 15# (3,000 to 4,500) are constipated to greater or less de- 
gree, etc. 

The above is by no means a complete list, but is sufficient 
to indicate the vast field of health conservation which a school 
medical service like that of Portland is hardly able to touch 
upon. To deal effectively with all this defectiveness and to 
supervise the activities of the school so that defects will less 
often develop are infinitely more important ends than the erad- 
ication of parasites and the control of contagious disease. As a 
rule not over 3 per cent of the children will need attention in 
any one year for contagious disease, while from 50 to 65 per 
cent have one or more forms of chronic physical defect. The 
two lines of work are important therefore in the ratio of about 
1 to 20. 

Another line of work ought to receive serious attention in 
Portland, and that is the prevalence of goiter among the school 
children, and especially among the girls. This condition ought 
to call for serious study and investigation. 

3. ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF A DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 
SUPERVISION FOR A CITY THE SIZE OF PORTLAND. 

Control 

This should be vested in the School Directors, not the 
board of health. The former method of control has superseded 
the latter in more than three-fourths of American cities, and is 
rapidly coming to be a standard requirement. 

While it is possible for the work to be effectively carried 
on by a board of health, it is extremely unlikely that it will be. 
The board of health lacks the educational point of view, usually 
makes the work curative rather than preventive, neglects the so- 
called "minor" forms of defectiveness, makes the school service 
a side issue of the public health work, and fails to secure the 
maximum co-operation from teachers and parents. In greater 
or less degree all the above-named faults are to be found in 
the Portland system. Change of control must be the first step 
in any real advance in the school medical service of Portland. 3 



3 For further arguments relating to control, see Gulick and 
Ayres: Medical Inspection of Schools, 1913 edition, Chapter X. 



262 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



The Force Needed, and the Expense 

The following represents the minimum requirements for an 
efficient system of health supervision for 30,000 school children : 

One chief health director, full time, salary $ 3,500 

One assistant physician, full time (or two for half time), 

salary 2,200 

One eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist, half time, salary 1,500 
One woman physician (chiefly for high school girls), full 

time, salary 2,000 

One dentist, full time, salary 2,000 

Eight school nurses, full time, salary, each $800 6,400 

Equipment 400 

Total $18,000 

As the city grows, the force would need to be increased in 
proportion. Two nurses and one half-time physician should be 
added for each 6,000 increase in the number of children. 

The expenditure recommended would not make an ideal 
system, but it would place Portland abreast of the better-class 
cities of its size. 4 The importance of adequate salaries deserves 
special emphasis. Unless they are placed on at least as good 
a basis as the schedule suggested above, it will be useless to 
expect the kind of service needed. Costs are large or small 
relative to other costs. The system recommended would add 
only about 60 cents per year to the $44.25 now expended per 
year for the child's education; or for eight years a total of 
$4.80 in addition to the $354 now spent for instruction. Com- 
pared to the health returns and enhanced efficiency of the in- 
struction itself, this cost is very low. Portland is expending 
several times this sum every year in giving instruction a second 
or third time to "repeaters," whose number could no doubt be 
materially reduced by greater attention to health conditions. 

The Chief Health Director 

Whatever the system, its efficiency will depend more upon 
the equipment of the physician in charge than upon anything 
else. The usual medical training does not offer the slightest 
guarantee of fitness for this position, the requirements of which 
are absolutely different from those necessary for medical prac- 
tice. Educational hygiene is a specialty which few physicians 
have cultivated. A physician should be selected who has had 
wide experience in work of this kind, and he should be given a 
free hand to organize the department, within the limit of the 
expenditures allowed. He should be a man of great tact, for it 



4 Such cities, for example, as Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and 
Milwaukee, all of which have health departments ranking with 
the best in the country. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 263 

is necessary to win the confidence of children, teachers, parents, 
and local physicians. He should be a good speaker, so as to be 
able to put the department in the right light before the public. 
He must be able to manage the work in such a way as not to 
arouse unduly the opposition of religious sects or prejudiced 
physicians, and he must secure effective co-operation with local 
hospitals, dispensaries, board of health, philanthropic agencies, 
mothers' clubs, etc. He must be able to train teachers in ef- 
fective methods of observing children, and to help them in the 
teaching of hygiene. 

Offices, Equipment, Etc. 

There should be a central office of several rooms, viz., a 
general reception room, a private office for the director, one 
examining room, a small medical laboratory, a room for the 
psychologist, and a dental clinic. There should also be planned 
for each new school building a small room to be used by the 
school nurse, physician, or psychologist. These are especially 
necessary in the poorer parts of the city. The woman physician 
should have an office of two small rooms in each high school 
attended by girls. A similar office should be maintained in each 
high school attended by boys for the use of a male physician. 

Children who need a more thorough examination than would 
be possible in the routine examinations could be brought to the 
central office. One special nurse should be assigned to this 
office, whose duty it would be to keep the records and assist 
the physician in charge of office examinations. 

Dental Clinic 

The arrangement here is excellent as far as it goes. The 
school dentist, who is employed Saturdays only, treats from 40 
to 70 children per month. Usually from one-half to one-third 
of the treatments are for extractions. Emphasis, however, should 
be placed more on preventive work. The effort to patch up the 
results of prolonged neglect is more or less inconsequential. 
Portland should have at least one full-time dentist. This would 
not be enough, but it would make a good beginning. The ex- 
ample of Cambridge (England) and West Newton (Massachu- 
setts) should be followed in the concentration of effort on the 
lower grades. This guarantees the largest amount of preven- 
tion for the expenditure of time and effort. To concentrate 
effort upon the bad conditions of upper grades is like locking 
the barn door after the horse has been stolen. 

Nowhere else are preventive measures so important. Dental 
caries is predominantly a disease of childhood and youth. When 
a tooth has ached the best time for saving it has gone by. Sta- 
tistics in hundreds of cities prove that always from 60 to 95 



264 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



per cent of the children have one or more decaying teeth, and 
that the average number per child is usually about three or four. 
From 10 to 30 per cent of the children of almost any school 
suffer from frequent toothache, and more than 1 per cent have 
chronic "gum boils." Impaction and other dental irregularities 
are common. These conditions result in imperfect mastication, 
nervousness, general toxemia from the absorption of pus, and 
lowered vitality generally. Diphtheria, tuberculosis, etc., are 
sometimes traceable to decayed teeth, and infection may spread 
from them to the throat and middle ear. Even moral delinquency 
sometimes yields to dental treatment. 

The objection sometimes made to the free dental clinic in 
the school is that it is an encroachment on the field of the pri- 
vate practitioner. This argument has no weight whatever. A 
large proportion of parents simply cannot afford to employ 
dentists for their children. The real question is whether this 
work shall be done by a school dentist, or not at all. In all 
probability the income of private dentists would be affected fa- 
vorably, rather than unfavorably. The child, who has through- 
out his school life experienced the comforts which result from 
school dentistry, will form the "dentist habit" and patronize the 
private dentist the rest of his life. Besides, disease should be 
conceived as an evil to be eradicated, and not as a resource to 
be conserved for the benefit of any profession. 

The argument that free dental treatment destroys parental 
responsibility is not borne out by experience. Parental respon- 
sibility is increased, rather than diminished. Anyway, our duty 
is to the children rather than to the parents. It is a queer ethics 
which would demand that children's bodies be allowed to rot as 
a moral lesson to their parents! 

Medical Clinic 

A great deal of medical treatment (just how much the writer 
was not able to learn) has been provided for the children of 
indigent parents in local hospitals and dispensaries. This is an 
excellent arrangement, and should be continued and extended. 
One or two clinics should also be maintained by the School 
Directors, in connection with the schools in the poorer sections 
of the city. These would prove a great help in the management 
of certain minor disorders, the treatment of which is tedious 
and not likely to be adequately carried out without some such 
arrangement. Discharging ears (which ordinarily are found in 
about 1 per cent of the school enrollment) belong in this cate- 
gory. When not in use by a physician, the medical clinics would 
be at the service of the school nurse. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 265 

The Work of School Nurses 

The necessity of a liberal supply of school nurses has al- 
ready been suggested. Without an adequate follow-up service 
only a small fraction of notifications sent to parents will be 
acted on, usually not more than 5 to 30 per cent. School nurses 
bring the proportion up to 85 or 90 per cent. The nurse goes 
into the home and by tactful presentation of the child's case 
effects what no other agency could accomplish. She not only 
secures action in the case at hand, but she also becomes a per- 
manent advisory influence in the homes where she visits. 

It is just as effective to have the routine inspections for 
trachoma, pediculosis, skin diseases, etc., made by school nurses 
as by physicians. With proper assistance and direction they 
make the examinations for many other kinds of defects just as 
efficiently as doctors. The experience of several cities dem- 
onstrates that it is far better to have a small number of excep- 
tionally competent doctors, assisted by a good supply of nurses, 
than to have a large number of doctors and few nurses. It is 
also more economical. Another advantage of school nurses is 
that they arouse less professional jealousy than do physicians. 

School nurses eradicate parasites, do first-aid work, act 
in an advisory capacity to the older girls in intimate matters of 
personal hygiene, and exert a most beneficent influence in the 
Americanization of the poorer foreign population. It is a mis- 
take, however, to suppose that nurses are only needed in schools 
attended by the poorer classes. Portland could well afford to 
supply ten or twelve, and ought to have eight at least. 

The Teachers' Part in Health Supervision 

Any scheme of health supervision which does not succeed 
in enlisting the interest and assistance of teachers is doomed 
to failure or indifferent success. The more prominent the pre- 
ventive aspect of the work the greater is this necessity. This 
is an additional reason why the control should be vested in 
the board of education. 

The teacher is the only person constantly present with the 
pupils. She has more opportunity than any one else to detect 
the first symptoms of contagious disease, signs of nervousness, 
indications of eye-strain, ear-discharge, deafness, etc. With 
the help of the medical director, teachers develop no mean de- 
gree of skill in detecting symptoms of common physical defects; 
without such assistance and instruction, even good teachers are 
blind to all but the most striking disorders. It is the latter con- 
dition which seems to prevail in Portland. Many teachers were 
asked whether they had in their room any cases of partial deaf- 
ness, defective eyes not fitted with glasses, spinal curvature, 



266 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

nervousness, malnutrition, badly neglected teeth, untreated ade- 
noids, etc. Rarely was an affirmative answer received, although, 
without the slightest doubt, some of almost every one of the 
above-named defects were present in every room. I observed 
at a glance extreme cases of myopia, scoliosis, round shoulders, 
anaemia, dental caries, etc., in classes where the teacher said she 
knew of no such defects. The teacher had not been taught to 
observe, and was resting in false security on the assumption 
that the school doctors were looking after the child's body suf- 
ficiently. 

Teachers are the proper ones to make the vision and hearing 
tests. Some of the best-known oculists in the United States, 
including Dr. Frank Allport, Northwestern University, Dr. Myles 
Standish, Harvard University, and many others, have taken this 
stand, after comparison of the tests made by teachers and or- 
dinary physicians. The teacher can not only find the defective 
visual or auditory acuity as easily as can the physician who is 
not a specialist, but even better, for she has more opportunity 
to supplement her test with observation for symptoms. 

4. OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

Portland is one of the few cities of its size in the United 
States without an open-air school. The need for open-air schools, 
however, is much the same in this city as in any other, and the 
equable, temperate climate is especially suitable to them. An 
examination of the health reports for the six months ending 
March, 1913, shows that approximately 9 per cent of the deaths 
of Portland were caused by tuberculosis. The real proportion is 
no doubt somewhat greater than this, as experts in vital stalistics 
tell us that everywhere deaths are credited to other diseases 
which are indirectly due to tuberculosis. 

The point to emphasize is that approximately 3,000 children 
now attending school in Portland (10 per cent of all) will die 
of this disease, unless something is done to save them. For the 
most part these are the children whom an examination would 
show to be somewhat below par in growth and nutrition. There 
is no way to reach such children and minister to their physical 
needs except through the school. At present, the schools of 
Portland are doing nothing for them. The medical examiners 
practically never report anaemia or poor development, their at- 
tention being chiefly occupied with parasites, infectious dis- 
ease, etc. They are not blamed for this, for under the present 
system it would do no good to report anaemia and malnutrition 
Nothing would come of it. 

The economic aspect of this problem is challenging. Port- 
land is turning out annually at least 300 children from its schools 
who are doomed to die of tuberculosis, many of them in early 
life. Figuring on the basis of Irving Fisher's low estimate of 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 267 

the average economic value to society of a human life ($1,700), 
the total annual loss from these deaths will amount to more than 
a half million dollars. As the city's population increases, the 
loss will be proportionately greater. The school instruction of 
these 300 children for nine years will have cost, at the present 
average cost, $119,475. In other words, Portland is spending 
about $119,475 annually in the education of children who will 
die of tuberculosis; and the total loss from these deaths will 
amount to more than one-half million dollars per year. There 
can be no doubt that an adequate system of health supervision, 
including open-air schools, would prevent a part of this loss. 
(See also the recommendaton for such by Dr. Dresslar in the 
preceding chapter of this report.) 

In this connection, certain other facts regarding tuberculosis 
deserve emphasis: 

1. Tuberculosis is at present as much an educational and 
social problem as a medical one. Relatively few cases come 
under the notice of a physician until the most favorable time 
for a cure has passed by. 

2. Statistics prove that recent decreases in mortality from 
tuberculosis hold little or not at all for children. The disease 
kills about as many children of school age today as it did fifty 
years ago. From the ages 10 to 15 tuberculosis is responsible 
for many more deaths than scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles 
and whooping cough combined. 

3. It is well established that a large majority of children 
contract tuberculosis before the end of the common-school 
period. Most of these, to be sure, recover promptly and without 
suspicious symptoms. A large minority, however, retain the 
infection in latent form and often, after the lapse of years, 
succumb to it. In dealing with them the school should do every- 
thing in its power to bulwark the body against the manifest 
form of the disease. It is foolish to begin expensive operations 
with the third and last act of the drama. 

4. No system of ventilation has yet been devised which will 
take the place of open air for weakly, anaemic children. The 
lower temperature, normal humidity, and perceptible air cur- 
rents of the open-air class cannot with safety be replaced by 
the hot, kiln-dried and stagnant air of the average school-room. 
The conditions present even under the so-called "ideal" sys- 
tem of mechanical ventilation too often tend to cause anaemia, 
headaches, nervousness, and unhealthy conditions of the nose 
and throat. 

Careful physical examinations of pupils attending open-air 
schools in New York, Chicago, Boston, Providence, Cleveland, 
Oakland and many other cities prove that weakly, ill-nourished 



268 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

children in these schools invariably show enormous gains in 
weight, strength and quality of blood- Under the regimen of the 
open-air school, with its shorter study program, increased 
physical activity, and warm lunch, followed by one or two hours 
of quiet or sleep, the corpuscle-count quickly mounts from 
3 or 3% million to 4 or 4% million per cubic millimeter; and the 
hemoglobin from 65 or 70 per cent to 80 or 85 per cent (not far 
below normal). Corresponding improvement occurs in weight, 
strength, appetite, mental alertness and freedom from colds. 

The mental results of the open-air school are also note- 
worthy. Children who are listless, apathetic and retarded often 
become interested and attentive. Incorrigible children develop 
self control and helpfulness. The spirit of the open-air school 
is different. Freedom, initiative and co-operation take the place 
of routine and restraint. Sickly children in the open-air school 
make as satisfactory school progress on a study program of three 
hours per day as healthy children ordinarily make on a five- 
hour program. Grades, attendance, and percentage of promo- 
tions are usually better than in the ordinary class. Instruction 
given in the open air has marked advantages. The child is 
brought into closer contact with the world of animate and inani- 
mate things and is more likely to relate the school instruction to 
his own experiences. 

There is no reason for limiting the advantages of open-air 
schools to children who are sickly. Schools which accomplish 
so much for the latter could not fail to be of benefit to normal 
children. Portland could well afford to follow the example of 
Boston, which is placing about 5 per cent of its school children 
in open-air schools, or certain cities in California, which are 
going even further in this direction. At least one or two open- 
air classrooms should be included in each school building to be 
erected in the future. These should be planned and located with 
the assistance of an expert. Meanwhile, inexpensive portable 
school buildings for open-air instruction can be utilized. 5 

5. SCHOOL FEEDING 

While Portland is more fortunate than some cities as regards 
the average economic and educational status of her people, like 
all cities she has her exceptional districts. A few of the schools 
undoubtedly have many ill-nourished children. This does not 
mean that the children are starving. Malnutrition may result 
from many causes, including, besides insufficient food, inju- 
dicious selection of food, improper cooking, lack of supervision 
of the child's eating habits, etc. Defective teeth, obstructed 
nasal breathing, nervousness, low powers of digestion and assim- 



5 See Leonard P. Ayres: Open-Air Schools, 1910, Doubleday, 
Page Co. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 269 

ilation, loss of sleep, lack of opportunity for play, overcrowding, 
bad air, and general parental neglect are perhaps even more 
common causes. Where sufficiently thorough examinations 
have been made it has been found that even among the best 
social classes from 5 to 15 per cent of the children are ill- 
nourished. No other factor is as fundamental for health as 
nutrition. Its impairment is the first step toward tuberculosis 
and many other diseases. 

To improve the nutrition of school children all the factors 
above named must receive attention. Besides furnishing the 
child a school environment as nearly ideal as possible, homes 
must be helped by visiting nurses, the use of health leaflets to 
parents, etc. 

Finally, meals ought to be served in the school of certain 
districts, and supplied gratis to children who can not afford to 
pay. In such cases, meal tickets should always be disbursed in 
a way which will avoid bringing the indigency of a child to the 
knowledge of his fellows. School meals are one of the most 
successful and commendable of modern educational innovations. 
All the theoretical arguments against them have been demolished 
by the test of results. The school meal contributes not only to 
the child's health, but to his education as well. Cleanliness, 
order, politeness, habits of mastication, principles of dietetics, 
cooking, etc., can nowhere be so effectively taught as in connec- 
tion with the school meal. 6 

6. THE HEALTH OF THE TEACHING CORPS. 

The health of school children is intimately bound up with 
that of teachers. Statistical investigations indicate that not 
infrequently teachers suffer from nervous disorders and from 
diseases of the throat, lungs, and digestive system. Others are 
handicapped by deafness or defective vision. Where statistics 
have been collected, from 1 to 3 per cent have been found tuber- 
culous. While facts on these points are not available for Port- 
land, there is no reason to believe that the conditions here are 
different from those in other average cities. 

The prevalence of ill health among teachers is usually traced 
in part to the absence of any serious physical examination of 
candidates for educational service, and in part to the teacher's 
strenuous work, indoor life, and neglect of personal hygiene. 
Considerations of economy, as well as justice to both children 
and teachers, demand that all these matters be given attention. 

Candidates for teaching positions should be required to pass 
a thorough medical examination, given by the school physicians. 
This should include examination for defects of lungs, heart, 



6 See Louise Bryant: School Feeding, 1913, Lippincott Co. 



270 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



vision, hearing, nervous system, nutrition, etc. Such examina- 
tions are required in Los Angeles, and many other cities. Exper- 
ience shows the mere formal requirements of a certificate of 
good health, signed by "a reputable physician," is absolutely 
worthless. Anyone who has not already been turned over to the 
undertaker can secure such a statement. 

The health of the teacher in service should also receive 
systematic consideration. If teachers who show signs of incipi- 
ent disease were required to take an examination, serious disor- 
ders could often be discovered and arrested. This would safe- 
guard the health of teachers and pupils as well. 

The environment and conditions under which teachers work 
should be made as favorable as circumstances will permit. 
Teaching, at best, is not a particularly healthful occupation, or 
one free from severe demands upon physical and mental endur- 
ance. Investigations show that it is during the early years of 
service that the health is most likely to suffer impairment; hence 
sympathetic and helpful oversight of the young teacher is 
important. By all means, retiring allowances should be provided 
for teachers who have worn themselves out in the public service. 

7. HYGIENE TEACHING. 

The amount of time devoted to the teaching of hygiene 
seems to be from 30 to 50 minutes per week, more often about 
45. This allotment holds for all the school grades and, though 
not large, would appear to be sufficient if properly utilized. 
Seven recitations in hygiene were observed. The teaching 
ranged from excellent to exceedingly poor, but on the whole was 
perhaps not below the average for most cities. 

The teaching of hygiene would no doubt be better if the 
texts were better. These belong to a type now being rapidly 
superseded. It should hardly be necessary to urge that the real 
purpose of hygiene teaching is not to store the child's mind with 
the dry facts of anatomy and physiology, but rather to instil 
habits of hygienic living. Not all the teachers with whom I 
talked seemed to appreciate fully this distinction. 

A better series of text books should be adopted, and what- 
ever selection is made, supplementary hygiene readers should be 
placed in every school. A few of the best of these make fasci- 
nating reading for both pupils and teacher. 

The latter point deserves emphasis. Most teachers have 
themselves had but little instruction in hygiene, and need to 
have their own scope of knowledge enlarged. This can be 
brought about by well-selected supplementary books and by 
lectures and criticisms from time to time by someone of wide 
knowledge on the subject. The right kind of school medical 
officer finds here one of his most important functions. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 271 

It devolves upon the teacher to mold the health habits of 
her pupils; to cultivate habits of posture which will prevent 
spinal curvature and myopia; habits of activity, and love of play 
which will help to counterbalance the effects of sedentary life 
and ward off disease; to impart the knowledge of hygiene and 
ideals of correct living which will function throughout life as 
the cheapest form of health insurance. 

8. PHYSICAL TRAINING AND PLAYGROUND INSTRUCTION. 

The writer has never seen better physical training exercises 
than those in the Portland schools. They were lively, varied, 
and conducted with such a spirit of good humor and vim as to 
make them interesting and pleasing to the pupils, as well as 
healthful. 

The play life of Portland's school children, as far as obser- 
vations were possible, seemed by no means all it might be. 
Several of the schools have no play grounds, and in several 
instances where the grounds were commodious the children did 
not play, but engaged in pulling, shoving, yelling and other forms 
of boisterous rowdyism. Too often the older girls seemed to find 
nothing to do but sit around on the grass or parade with locked 
arms. 

It should not be necessary to argue for the educative or the 
moral and hygienic value of the right kind of play. Nowhere 
else will the child learn such wholesome lessons in fair-play, 
social co-operation, and self control. Correct judgment brings 
its quick reward; error its certain penalty. Play life is real life 
for the child, as the school too often is not. 

It is the duty of the school to teach children to play, and to 
encourage them to do so. Every teacher should be a play 
instructor. Certain ones who show special adaptability for this 
kind of work should be given special training for it. Organized 
courses of instruction are necessary for this purpose. 

It is recommended that the scope of the department of 
physical training be enlarged to include supervision of the play- 
ground work. The director of physical training has already 
accomplished a great deal in this line, but he should be given 
more assistants for the routine physical-training exercises, so 
that he may be responsible for the organization and supervision 
of playground instruction on a broad scale. He should be given 
a free hand and held responsible merely for results. Teachers 
who have some special training should be employed to act as 
playground instructors for an hour or two after the dismissal 
of school, and on Saturdays during the school year. Play is 
just as necessary during the school j^ear as in vacation, for the 
sedentary life which the child leads from 9 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. 
needs to be counterbalanced. 



272 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

As already recommended, the services of two physicians 
should be available in the high schools; one for boys and one 
for girls. One of their important duties would be to give 
physical examinations to determine fitness for various kinds of 
physical training and athletic exercise. In the absence of such 
examinations the more strenuous forms of the exercises in cur- 
rent use are sure to cause physical injury in a certain proportion 
of cases, possibly 5 per cent. 

The physical-training department would also do well to 
consider the advisability of establishing, as soon as possible, 
special orthopedic exercises for the treatment of scoliosis, round 
shoulders, flat foot, etc. For this purpose children will need 
to be classified according to type of defect. 

The exercises, which should be given for 40 to 50 minutes 
about three times a week, could take place after the close of the 
afternoon session. In the conduct of such work, the co-operation 
of an orthopedic surgeon is very desirable. 

9. THE HYGIENE OF INSTRUCTION. 
Daily School Programs 

The daily programs inspected were not always arranged to 
accord with the results of psychological and physiological 
studies of fatigue. No home study should be required below the 
sixth or seventh grade, and it should be strictly limited and care- 
fully supervised whenever made use of. Text books should be 
chosen which do not violate the standard requirements in the 
hygiene of reading. The motor aspects of the learning process 
should receive more attention. The work of the school should 
be directed in the light of such studies as have been made 
relating to the hygiene of the learning process, the hygiene of 
discipline, the influence of holidays and vacations on the child's 
ability to do mental work, the hygienic aspects of classification, 
promotion, etc. In various matters of this kind the advice of a 
psychologist should be available. 

10. SPECIAL CLASSES NEEDED. 
School for the Deaf. 

The one class now conducted is not sufficient for any school 
system of 30,000 children. Among this number there are sure to 
be from 100 to 150 children too deaf to profit greatly from the 
regular instruction. 

A very important desideratum in the education of deaf chil- 
dren is their proper classification. Three classes are to be care- 
fully distinguished, and separately taught by methods suitable 
to each. These are: (1) the deaf; (2) the "semi-deaf" (those 
with a usable remnant of hearing) ; and (3) the dull or feeble- 
minded deaf. The rule should be to place the child in the high- 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 273 

est type of school (that is, the type most nearly resembling the 
ordinary school) for which he is fitted. 7 

In the education of deaf and semi-deaf children it is ex- 
tremely important to get them in the special class at an early age 
and to keep them to the age of 17 or 18, if possible. 

Special Schools for Blind or Crippled Children 

A special class for each of these groups is probably needed 
in Portland. "While many otherwise progressive cities are slow 
to recognize the responsibility of society in the education of 
such unfortunates, the responsibility nevertheless is real. Every 
child has a right to the kind of education which will best fit it 
for the duties of citizenship. The more serious the child's handi- 
cap the deeper is this obligation. 

Special Classes for Stammerers 

There are probably 200 school children in Portland who 
should attend classes of this sort. The one now conducted is only 
a beginning. Statistics show that not over half the children who 
stutter recover spontaneously, but that 80 per cent can be cured 
or greatly improved in a few months by appropriate instruction 
in special classes. Complete segregation is not necessary. Ex- 
perience elsewhere proves that a special class, meeting for about 
40 minutes each day, will suffice in a large majority of cases. 

The stuttering child presents a tragedy to which many par- 
ents and teachers are strangely blind. Such a child is likely to 
become retarded. He is subjected to jest and ridicule, and is 
likely to develop traits of abnormal timidity. The vocational 
outlook for stutterers is altogether unpromising. They are 
barred, practically, from law, medicine, the ministry, teaching, 
and many lines of business. 8 

Schools for Backward Children 

Portland has more than its full quota of retarded children. 
The statistics given in Tables 17, 18 and 19, in Chapter IX, show 
the large number of children in the schools who are too old for 
their grades. In discussing these tables Superintendent Spaulding 
pointed out the need of careful attention being given to the 
needs of these children. This was again reinforced in Chapter 
XI, Part II, by Superintendent Francis. 



7 See article by Dr. Love in Proc. lid International Cong. Sch. 
HyG-, pp. 828-839, and that bv Dr. Yearsley in International Maq. 
Sch. Hug., Vol. VII, pp. 4-131 

8 For information on the treatment of stuttering in European 
schools, see articles by George Rouma in International Mag. of 
School Hygiene, III, 1907, pp. 116-171. 



274 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

To become retarded means, in many cases, to repeat work. 
Work that is repeated becomes stale. Repeaters not only lose 
interest, but self-confidence as well. The child who has failed 
of two or three promotions has usually formed the habit of 
failure. Portland is every year turning out many children who 
do not know what it means to succeed. 

To prevent this waste (Portland is spending now $44.25 
a year giving instruction to repeaters), it will be necessary to 
undertake systematic study of the children who are retarded. 
Among the important factors are dullness, feeble-mindedness, 
physical defects, peculiar interests or abnormal moral traits, 
etc. Improved methods of promotion, instruction, etc., can be 
looked to for the prevention of minor degrees of retardation, 
but not the extreme ones. 

For the right understanding and handling of the latter, the 
services of a psychologist will be necessary. 9 Assisting the 
psychologist, there should be one full-time field worker, whose 
function it would be to gather information regarding the home 
life, previous history and heredity of backward or otherwise 
exceptional children. This measure, supplemented by the work 
of the school health-department, would be able to accomplish 
wonders in bringing up to standard a certain number who are 
retarded because misunderstood or because physically handi- 
capped. 

The more extreme cases of backwardness can not be brought 
up to grade, but they can be segregated, classified by psycho- 
logical methods and given a kind of instruction from which 
they can derive immensely more profit than they can from the 
regular class. About two per cent of school children are so back- 
ward mentally that they can never master the abstractions of 
upper grammar grade studies. To keep them forever mumbling 
over subject matter which they can not master is both farcical 
and cruel. They clog the educational machinery. They con- 
sume a disproportionate amount of the teacher's energy. They 
pull down the standard of achievement for other children. 
They become disheartened and dejected, or else case-hardened 
and apathetic. 

Most of this class would be capable of learning a trade if 
they had an opportunity, and in no other way can the school 
help them so much as by affording them the kind of education 
which will make them self-supporting. They must be saved 
from becoming industrial drags after they leave school, for vo- 
cational unfitness is the open door to vice, pauperism and crime. 
(See also Chapters IX and XI.) 



9 See Arthur Holmes: The Conservation of the Child, 1912, 
Lippincott Co. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 275 

It is recommended that all children retarded two years or 
more be given a careful examination, both medical and psycho- 
logical, with a view to the formation of special classes for those 
who are in need of such instruction. The special class should 
never enroll more than 15 pupils per teacher. The purpose 
should be to fit the instruction to the needs of the individual 
child, with little regard to the regular course of study for nor- 
mal children. A shop is a necessary adjunct. The special 
teachers should be paid the maximum salary, and should have 
had specific training for this kind of work. Personality is an 
important element in their equipment. 10 

The children just described are mentally inferior, but not 
feeble-minded in the ordinary sense. They will be able to "float" 
in some sort of fashion in the social and industrial world. They 
are along the borderline between "mental deficiency" and nor- 
mality. Many of them will never develop intelligence or re- 
sponsibility beyond that of an eleven or twelve-year-old child. 
Educationally neglected, as is too often the case, they drift easily 
into pauperism and crime. Psychologists are demonstrating that 
from 20 to 40 per cent of our prison inmates, and from 30 to 
50 per cent of our white slave victims, belong to this class of 
individuals whom we may designate as "borderliners." The 
annual cost of vice and crime in Portland is greater than the 
city's total annual expenditure for education. The criminals of 
tomorrow are school children today. To stop the stream of 
criminality and inefficiency we must study its genesis in child- 
hood. 

The Feeble-minded 

Another group of children, perhaps one-half of one per cent 
of all, come under the designation "feeble-minded." The pro- 
portion is much larger than it is usually given, for the reason 
that physicians (who are seldom acquainted with the psycho- 
logical methods used in such cases) usually overlook the higher 
grades of defect. These should be rigidly confined in state in- 
stitutions or colonies throughout the reproductive period. If 
allowed to produce offspring the result is almost certain to be a 
spawn of degeneracy and feeble-mindedness. They will improve 
under training, but it is a positive danger to society to make 
them self-supporting. 

With two or three exceptions, the children now enrolled in 
Portland's special class belong to this group. Most of them cer- 
tainly are strictly institution cases. Instead of expending in- 
consequential effort on these, it is wiser to concentrate effort 
upon those who are merely backward, dull, "queer," incorrigi- 



10 See book by Lightner Witmer and others: The Special 
Class, 1912, the Psychological Clinic Press. 



276 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

ble, etc. It is wisest to devote time and money where we may 
hope for greatest return. 

Special Classes for Truants, Incorrigibles and Other Misfits 

For the reader to be convinced of the fruitfulness of this 
field it will only be necessary to examine the latest report of 
Mr. E. J. Lickley, Supervisor of Compulsory Education in Los 
Angeles. 11 No mistake would be made if the Los Angeles method 
of dealing with this problem were copied in detail by Portland. 
The teachers are all men. Manual and trade work, play and 
athletics are emphasized. Truancy is no longer dealt with by 
the Juvenile Court. The percentage of daily attendance is every 
month higher in the truant schools than in any regular school 
in the city. No pupil in these schools is expelled or suspended, 
and punishment of any kind is rare. Almost every boy makes 
good, and hundreds are saved from careers of criminality and 
started on the road to upright living and good citizenship. (See 
also Chapter XI, part 2, subdivision b.) 

11. SUxMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 

1. That the medical supervision be taken over by the Board 
of Education. 

2. That its scope be enlarged to include inspection for many 
kinds of defects which are now seldom reported. 

3. That the work be placed under the supervision of a well- 
paid, full-time physician who has had wide experience in this 
line of health service and who appreciates the educational as- 
pects of the problem. 

4. That besides the chief director, two full-time and two 
half-time physicians be employed (one of the full-time physi- 
cians to be a woman and one of the half-time physicians to be 
an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist), and one full-time dentist. 

5. That at least seven additional full-time nurses be em- 
ployed instead of one, so that adequate follow-up service could 
be organized and vigorously prosecuted. 

6. That an efficient system of records and reports be in- 
stituted. 

7. That annual vision and hearing tests be made by the 
teachers, under the direction of the chief medical director. 

8. That greater emphasis be placed upon preventive 
work and upon the treatment of so-called "minor" defects which 
are likely to lead to future conditions of ill health. 

9. That candidates for teaching positions be required to 
pass a physical examination, conducted by the school medical 



"See Psychological Clinic, May, 1913. 



CHAP. XIV. MEDICAL INSPECTION 277 

department, and that attention be given to the health of teachers 
in service. 

10. That the teaching of hygiene be made less academic, 
and that it be directed especially toward the cultivation of hy- 
gienic habits of living. 

11. That playgrounds be increased in number and size as 
rapidly as finances will permit, and that the playground in- 
struction be organized and combined with the department of 
physical training. 

12. That a few open-air schools be established at once, and 
that their number be increased rapidly until they can accommo- 
date all of the anaemic, debilitated children in the schools (or 
at least 5 per cent of the enrollment). 

13. That plans be made for the organization, in the near 
future, of a more adequate system of special classes for the 
deaf (to include a number of children whose hearing is not quite 
destroyed but who cannot profit from ordinary instruction), 
the blind, the crippled (certain classes of cripples only), stut- 
terers, etc. 

14. That warm lunches be served in several schools, where 
a fairly large proportion of the children are under-nourished. 

15. That a psychologist be employed to assist in the study 
of mentally peculiar and defective children, with a view to the 
segregation of certain types of cases in special schools. The 
chief problem here is the "borderline" child. 

16. That attention be given to the more important aspects 
of the hygiene of instruction, including the choice of hygienic 
text-books, the regulation of home study, the arrangement of 
the daily program, the number of recesses, and kindred matters. 



PART IV 

Attendance; Records; Costs 



CHAP. XV. CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 281 

Chapter XV 

CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 
(Elliott.) 

(1) CENSUS 

General 

A complete, accurate and continuous census of the school 
population of the city is an indispensable factor for the best and 
most effective administration of a public school system organ- 
ized to provide an education for all the children in the com- 
munity. Such a census affords an index to the changing educa- 
tional needs of the city, arising from the growth, movement and 
character of the population. The extent to which the enforce- 
ment of the Compulsory Education and Child Labor Laws is pos- 
sible depends very largely upon the completeness and reliability 
of the school census. Furthermore, the state, for its own pur- 
poses, requires an annual counting of children of legal school age. 

Legal Provisions Concerning School Census 

The annual school census now taken in Portland is regulated 
directly by the statutes of the state. 

"Every district clerk shall enroll annually during the last 
week in November for school purposes the names and ages 
of all persons in his district over four and under twenty years 
of age and also the names and postoffice addresses of all parents 
and guardians of such persons resident in the district. This an- 
nual school census shall include all youths between the ages of 
four and twenty years who, on the twenty-fifth day of November, 
actually resided in the district." (Lord's Oregon Laws, Sec. 
4069.) 

The enumeration made under the above provision is used by 
the state as the basis for the classification of school districts 
(L. O. L. sec. 4020), for the distribution of the common or irre- 
ducible school fund (L. O. L., sections 3973, 3974), and for the 
per capita county school tax of eight dollars. (Laws, 1911, 
Chap. 84.) Also, the county school fund is partially apportioned 
according to the number of census children. 

A special enumeration of the name, age and residence of 
blind or deaf children is provided for. (L. O. L., Sec. 4072.) 

The blanks for the census are provided by the State Super- 



* The principal sources for the preparation of this portion of 
the report have been (a) the special oral and written informa- 
tion furnished by the School Clerk and the Truant Officer; 
(b) the description of the method followed in taking the census 
as given by two principals; and (c) the official blanks and re- 
ports to which reference is made. — E. C. Elliott. 



282 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



intendent of Public Instruction. The individual enumeration 
blank contains the following items: 

(1) Name of parent or guardian. 

(2) Address. 

(3) Names of children classified as to sex and according 

to three age groups: 

(a) 4 and 5. 

(b) 6, 7, and over 15 and under 20. 

(c) Over 8 and under 15. 

Blind and deaf children are enumerated separately and 
classified as above. 

The blank containing the summary provides for the totals 
for each sex of each of the three specified age groups; and also 
such totals for blind and deaf children. This blank also calls 
for the number of legal voters for school purposes, and infor- 
mation concerning private schools, number of teachers employed, 
number of pupils enrolled, number of private schools, and num- 
ber of months private schools are in session. 

Certified copies of the school census returns must be for- 
warded by the district clerk within ten days after taking to the 
county school superintendent (L. O. L., Sec. 4071); also a special 
segregated report in the case of districts of the first class (Sec. 
4114). 

The Compulsory Education law provides that the clerk of 
the first class district school boards shall, at the commence- 
ment of school, furnish a copy of the school census to the city 
superintendent or the principal of the schools in such district, 
together with the names and addresses of the truant officers 
whose jurisdiction is in the district. It is made the legal duty 
of the city superintendent or principal at the opening of school 
and every four weeks thereafter, to compare the census list with 
the enrollment of the school, or schools, and to report to the 
proper truant officer the name and address of any parent or 
person in parental relation to a child not in regular attendance 
at the public schools, and also the name of such child. 

Plan of Taking Census 

The actual census practice in Portland is as follows: The 
enumerators, mostly principals of schools, are selected by the 
school clerk. The census area, therefore, is usually the district 
supplied by the school of such principal-enumerator. The ex- 
pressed motives for selecting principals for this service, aside 
from that of convenience, are that they would have a chief inter- 
est in seeing that all the children in their districts are included 
in the census, and that the house-to-house canvass gives a good 
opportunity for them to become familiar with the school patrons, 
and with the home conditions of pupils. 

The individual enumeration blanks furnished by the State 
Superintendent are made out in carbon triplicate, arranged al- 



CHAP. XV. CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 283 

phabetically for each enumeration district, and substantially 
bound. One of the three copies is deposited with the county 
superintendent of schools, one with the principal of the school 
of the enumeration district, and one is retained by the school 
clerk. The apparent presumption is that the census list given 
to the principal is to be used as a check list upon the school en- 
rollment. However, it does not appear that these lists are sys- 
tematically used for this or any other purpose; and therefore 
are "dead" after the summary of the enumeration has been pre- 
pared. 

Instructions to Enumerators 

The instructions given to the enumerators are of the most 
general sort: 

1. Make three copies of each sheet. 

2. Enroll the names and ages of all persons (including young 
married people) over four and under twenty years of age who 
resided in this district November 25. Also enroll the names and 
postoffice addresses of parents or guardians of persons over four 
and under twenty. 

3. Enroll separately the name, residence, postoffice address 
and age of every blind and every deaf person over four and 
under twenty years of age who resided in this district November 
25. Blind, or deaf, applies to each person blind, or deaf, to such 
an extent as to prevent him or her from acquiring an education 
in the common schools. 

4. Legal voters for school purposes comprise any citizen, 
male or female, who is twenty-one years of age and has resided 
in the district thirty days immediately preceding date of in- 
quiry, and who has property in the district in his, or her, name, 
as shown by the last county assessment, and not assessed by the 
sheriff, on which he, or she, is liable to pay a tax; provided, 
that any man who has declared his intention to become a citizen 
of the United States, and has resided in the state for six months 
immediatelv preceding the date of inquiry, shall be considered a 
citizen of the state; provided, further, that any person shall be 
deemed to have complied with the property qualifications men- 
tioned above who has stock, shares or ownership in any corpora- 
tion, firm, or co-partnership which has property in the district, 
as shown by the last county assessment, and not assessed by the 
sheriff, on which said corporation, firm, or co-partnership pays 
a tax, even though his, or her, individual name does not appear 
upon the tax roll. 

Method of Enumeration 

It does not appear that any specific directions are given to 
the enumerators for the purpose of simplifying the procedure for 
obtaining the required information, or of securing uniformity 
in the age data. Each enumerator is left to his own devices as 
to the most economical and productive working plan. He is 
expected to find all of the census children in his district and to 
classify them into the indicated age groups. In consequence 
of this absence of a defined method some considerable varia- 



284 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

tion in the completeness and the accuracy of the enumerations 
in the several sub-districts might be expected. 

Cost and Report 

The enumerators are paid at the rate of three cents per 
name in the thickly populated districts, and five cents per name 
in the outlying and scattered districts. The expense thus in- 
curred, according to the financial report of the school clerk, 
amounted to $1,901.38* in 1910-11, and to $2,087.56* in 1911-12. 
The census exhibit presented by the school clerk in his annual 
report is in the following form: 

CENSUS DATA** 
The census for 1911 shows as follows: 

Males between the ages of 4 and 20 years 19,712 

Females between the ages of 4 and 20 years 20,245 

Total 39,957 

Divided as follows: 

Ages 4 and 5 5,098 

Ages 4, 7, and 15 to 19, inclusive 16,874 

Ages 8 to 14, inclusive 17,985 

Deaf and blind included in above: 

Deaf children enumerated 26 

Blind children enumeratd 4 

Legal school voters: 
Total voters enumerated 28,722 

Critical Statement 

The circumstances under which this section of the report 
has been prepared have not permitted that careful and detailed 
examination and checking of the methods followed by the cen- 
sus enumerators necessary for making any criticism of the ef- 
fectiveness of the present system for securing a proper census 
of all children of school age in the school district. It is clearly 
recognized that the present general plan of taking the school 
census as well as its itemized character are determined by state 
statute. In consequence, the school officials of the city are not 
entirely responsible for certain limitations of both plan and 
method. Nevertheless, so firm are we in our belief in the im- 
portance of the school census to the enlarging educational inter- 



* These amounts are taken from the details of disburse- 
ments for the fiscal year ending June 30. 

** Thirty-ninth Annual Report, p. 18. In 1912 the school 
census had increased to 43,121. 



CHAP. XV. CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 285 

ests of the city that the following recommendations are considered 
appropriate : 

RECOMMENDATIONS 
1. Need of a Permanent and Continuous Census 

Manifestly the first purpose of the census is to obtain a 
complete enumeration of the children of legal school age. The 
rapid growth and expansion of the city with the resulting large 
shifting of the population present a difficult obstacle to such 
an enumeration. The time of the year at which the census is 
taken (November) is most favorable from the point of view of 
the permanence of residence of the city's population. The school 
authorities have sought to correct and supplement the November 
census by requiring the parent or guardian to fill out for each 
child entering school a so-called "Census Form," giving the 
name and residence of the child, month, year and place of birth, 
the date of the last successful vaccination, and one or two other 
minor items. These 'Census Forms" form a check list in each 
school for the existing as well as the next school census. 

The "Census Form" represents the first step in the making 
of a permanent and continuous census. Notwithstanding the 
evident difficulties and the increased expense, every city should 
at all times be in possession of a complete card list of all of the 
children of school age residing within its limits and subject to 
the general educational regulation of the state. This list should 
be in such form as to enable the school officials to know at all 
times the school whereabouts of every child of legal school age. 
Whenever a family changes its place of residence within the city 
a legal requirement of notifying school authorities should be 
enforced, if necessary with appropriate penalties. Proper co- 
operation of police, landlords, charity organizations, school 
teachers and principals, and the child-labor officials, will make 
it possible for the city to have an accurate and complete census 
at all times. This permanent and continuous list then may be 
used to check the legal census now required by the statutes of 
the state. 

2. Enumerators 

The employment of school principals for the taking of 
school census appears to us in the absence of a properly organ- 
ized attendance department to be a good plan. This service 
guarantees a higher degree of intelligence and a readier adap- 
tation to circumstances than would be possible with special, 
intermittent enumerators. Under the plan of a permanent census 
suggested in the preceding comment, the annual enumeration 
now required by law would develop into making corrections and 
additions to the permanent list. These corrections and additions 
would then best be made by the attendance officers suggested 
for appointment in the recommendation presented at the con- 



286 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

elusion of this section of our report. In any event, whether the 
temporary annual plan of the census is followed, or a permanent 
and continuous census established, the enumerators should re- 
ceive far more detailed and definite instructions than are now 
given. 

3. Cost 

In the absence of any reliable and definite report of the 
expense for this item in other cities, it would seem that the ex- 
pense of the census in its present form (about 5 cents per capita) 
is a reasonable one.* 

4. Report of Census Returns 

While the chief purpose of the school census has been 
to discover the number of school children in the city, it is our 
judgment that there are other and more important ends which 
should be recognized. 

In the first place, the annual tabulated summary of the cen- 
sus should be much more detailed than the one now published. 
Instead of showing merely three age groups, as called for by 
the state, the number of boys and girls for each year group, 4 to 
19, inclusive, should be exhibited. Such an exhibit, when com- 
pared with a similar one of school attendance, would reveal a 
number of highly important facts as to school population and 
school attendance, as to private and parochial school attend- 
ance,** withdrawals from school, children of school age em- 
ployed, needed school accommodations, etc. These important 
items have no place in the account that the school system now 
keeps with the children of the city. 



* The only investigation of the subject of the school census 
in cities that has been made (Regulation of City School Children 
— Haney, J. D., New York, 1910), brings out the lack of our 
knowledge as to the cost of the school census. In some states 
a per capita limit is place. For such states the medium cost is 
about 4 cents per child. The United States Bureau of Education, 
in its annual elaborate exhibit of fiscal statistics of city school 
systems, groups the expense for school elections and school 
census as one item. 

**For instance, the report of the 1911 census shows 17,985 
children of 8 to 14 years, inclusive (the compulsory education 
limit up to the amendment of 1911). The latest printed record 
of the age of pupils attending public schools is that found on 
p. 29 of the annual school report in a table "Showing Age of 
Pupils in Different Classes for Term Ending June 18, 1912." 
Elementary schools only are included. The reports of the sev- 
eral high schools are silent as to the verv important item of 
the distribution of the ages of pupils. However, this table shows 
10.048 pupils of the ages of 8 to 14, inclusive. The unanswered 
question is, Where are the two thousand children of these ages 
apparently not in school according to this record? 



CHAP. XV. CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 287 

In other words, the school census should be something more 
than a mere counting of children. It should be one of the prin- 
cipal instruments of an effective school government that seeks 
to know the full extent of its responsibility to the community. 

(2) COMPULSORY EDUCATION 

Legal Provisions Concerning Compulsory Education 

The Compulsory Education law of the state (Lord's Oregon 
Statutes, sections 4119-4134, as amended by Chap. 243, Laws, 
1911) requires the parent or guardian of any child between and 
including the ages of nine and fifteen years of age to send such 
child to the public schools for a term of not less than the num- 
ber of months of public school held annually in the district of 
residence. This law makes the usual exceptions as to children 
attending private or parochial schools, children who have com- 
pleted the elementary schools, and children physically unable 
to attend school. The school board of the district of the first 
class is required to provide truant officers, either by requesting 
the police authorities to detail one or more members of the police 
force to perform the duties of truant officers, or by appointing 
its own truant officer. By the specific provision of the law, 
truant officers are required to notify parents or guardians of 
children not attending school, to file court complaints against 
such parents or guardians, if necessary, and to investigate all 
cases of truancy or non-attendance at school. 

By the provisions of the Child Labor law (Chap. 183, Laws, 
1911) of the state, attendance at school is compulsory for chil- 
dren between the ages of nine and fifteen years, during the 
whole of the school term in the city, town or village of residence, 
and also for children between the ages of fifteen and sixteen 
years who are not legally employed in some useful work. To be 
legally employed, a child must have a child-labor permit. The 
responsibility for the enforcement of the child-labor law rests 
upon the Board of Inspectors of Child Labor, the secretary of 
which issues the child-labor permits. Quite obviously, the bulk 
of the work of the enforcement of the child labor law is in 
Portland. Consequently the office of the secretary of the board 
is located there. 

These two laws, the Compulsory Education Law and the 
Child Labor Law, are complementary efforts to secure to all the 
children of the community the benefits of a minimum amount 
of schooling during that period of life when the schooling can 
be made most effective. The school census is the common 
ground upon which their enforcement rests, and truant officers 
are responsible to the provisions of both laws, which are to be 
classed among the best in the country. 



288 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Enforcement of School Attendance 

The Board of School Directors for Portland has complied 
with the provisions of the Compulsory Education Law to the 
very moderate extent of appointing one truant officer, to whom 
an annual salary of $1,370 is paid. Under the rules of the Board 
(p. 28) the truant officer is under the supervision of the City 
Superintendent of Schools, during the time schools are in ses- 
sion, performing the duties imposed upon him by statute; during 
other times he is under the supervision of the School Clerk. 
Besides the enforcement of the Compulsory Education Law, the 
truant officer has all cases of the attendance upon school of 
vermin-infected, or uncleanly pupils (par. 100, Chap. 5, Laws, 
1911), trespassing on school property, vandalism, improper use 
of school premises, stealing, immorality, poverty, and tobacco- 
using among school children. 

The school census of 1912 showed 43,121 children of school 
age in the district. The enrollment in the fifty-seven public 
schools during the spring term of 1913 was 31,265. No data are 
available as to the enrollment of private and parochial schools, 
which are approximately twenty-four in number. 

The amount of work necessary properly to enforce the Com- 
pulsory Education Law is altogether beyond the capacity of a 
single officer. The present truant officer reports that on account 
of the amount of his work, it is impossible for him to handle any 
but the most pressing cases of truancy and non-attendance. 
Moreover, he is without adequate clerical assistance, and is 
obliged to keep practically all of the truancy records himself. 

Records and Reports 

The school law defines irregular attendance as "eight unex- 
cused one-half day absences in any four weeks the school may 
be in session" (L. 0. L., Sec. 4129). It has not been possible 
during the Survey to determine the extent to which principals 
and teachers comply with this provision by reporting cases to 
the truant officer. The number of cases of irregular attendance 
for 1912-1913 (49) seems to be very small, in spite of the high 
per cent of attendance reported for the city (96.1). 

The individual record of cases kept by the truant officer is 
as complete as could be expected in the absence of proper cleri- 
cal assistance. 

A better organization and operation of the attendance de- 
partment would naturally result in the improvement of the 
records, especially in the matter of "following up" cases after 
tbe initial disposition. 



CHAP. XV. CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 289 

Truant Officers' Record 

No 

Name of child Age Date 

Address Phone 

Parent's name 

School Grade Mentality 

Date of complaint By whom made . . . . . 

Nature of complaint 



Disposition of case 



Table 25 
Truant Officer's Records 
The truant officer submits to the school board each month, 
giving in itemized detail, a report of his work. At the close of 
the year a similar report for the entire year is presented. It has 
not been the practice to include this annual report of the truant 
officer in the annual school report, although it is unquestionably 
of greater importance than much of the material included. Con- 
sequently the following statement of the classification and dis- 
posal of the 1400 cases handled by the truant officer for the 
school year 1912-1913 may properly be included here as evi- 
dence both of the amount and extent of the work undertaken. 

Total number of truancy cases reported 342 

Disposition of cases: 

Warned and returned to school 222 

Reported to the Juvenile Court as wards 38 

Transferred to other schools 4 

Reported to the Associated Charities and Child 

Labor Commission 2 

Removed from the city 3 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and returned 

to school 7 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and sent to the 

Frazier Home 19 

Parents brought before the Justice Court 1 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and committed 

to the Oregon State Training School 3 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and committed 

to the Boys' and Girls' Aid Society 3 

Required to report at my office weekly 16 

Disposition deferred 24 

Total number of non-attendance cases reported 582 

Disposition of cases: 

Warned and placed in school 345 

Reported to the Juvenile Court as wards 32 

Reported to the Associated Charities 6 

Removed from the city 16 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and sent to the 

Frazier Home 5 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and committed 

to the Oregon State Training School 3 



290 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Parents brought before the Justice Court 4 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and returned to 

school 4 

Sickness and poverty found to be the cause of 

non-attendance 29 

Reported to the Child Labor Commission 18 

Labor permits secured 13 

Special permits secured from the City Superin- 
tendent 2 

Transferred to parochial schools 8 

Reported to the British Aid Society 1 

Disposition deferred 96 

Total number irregular attendance cases reported 49 

Disposition of cases: 

Warned and continued in school 29 

Reported to the Juvenile Court as wards 7 

Reported to the Child Labor Commission 2 

Reported to the Associated Charities 1 

Reported to the Boys' and Girls' Aid Society 2 

Removed from the city 1 

Disposition deferred 7 

Total number cases of general misconduct 286 

This includes incorrigibility, immorality, inde- 
cency, petty thievery, cigarette smoking, etc. 
Disposition of cases: 

Warned and continued in school 135 

Reported to the Juvenile Court as wards 42 

Removed from the city 5 

Returned to the Oregon State Training School as 

wards 5 

Reported to the Oregon State Training School as 

wards 1 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and sent to the 

State Training School 8 

Brought before the Juvenile Court and sent to the 

Frazier Home 20 

Reported to the Juvenile Court for investigation. . 4 

Reported to the Associated Charities 1 

Brought before the Juvenile Court, and escaped.. 1 
Brought before the Juvenile Court, and continued 

in school 19 

Transferred to other schools 1 

Required to report to the office weekly 18 

Taken before the Juvenile Court and remanded to 

the Circuit Court 1 

Reported to the City Health Department 2 

Transferred to parochial schools. . 5 

Reported to the Police Department 1 

Removed from school and labor permit secured. . 1 
Taken before the Juvenile Court and committed to 

the Boys' and Girls' Aid Society 1 

Disposition deferred 15 

Total number cases of trespass reported 42 

Disposition of cases: 

Children warned and parents notified 35 

Police Department notified 1 

Disposition deferred 6 



CHAP. XV. CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 291 

Total number cases children found on streets 89 

Disposition of cases: 

Placed in school 68 

Removed from city 3 

Reported to the Child Labor Commission 4 

Labor permits secured 5 

Transferred to other schools 3 

Physician's certificates secured 1 

Disposition deferred 5 

Total number cases of poverty reported 9 

Disposition of cases: 

Reported to the Juvenile Court as wards 1 

Reported to the Associated Charities 8 

Total number cases of filth, pediculosis, etc., reported 2 

Disposition of cases: 

Health office notified 1 

Parents notified and warned 1 

Total number cases reported to the Child Labor Commission 34 
Total number cases reported by the Child Labor Commission 60 

Visits to the Juvenile Court in prosecution of cases 38 

Visits to homes for investigation of cases 340 

Visits to schools 327 

Legal notices, letters of warning and other communications 

sent 586 

Special investigations 15 

Visits to the Justice Court 3 

Total number of wards reported to the Juvenile Court 117 

Total number children brought before the Juvenile Court and 

returned to school 29 

Total number children sent to the Frazier Home 44 

Total number children sent to the Oregon State Training 

School through the Juvenile Court 19 

(Part of these have been wards of the Oregon State 
Training School and have been returned to that insti- 
tution.) 

Total number children committed to the Boys' and Girls' 

Aid Society by the Juvenile Court 4 

The 1,400 cases reported to this office during the past year 
directly concern 1,618 children. 

During the year investigations of 153 cases have been de- 
ferred, owing to lack of time. Of these, 135 have been disposed 
of. This leaves 18 cases of which no disposition has been made. 

Certain features of the monthly and annual reports of the 
truant officer are open to some criticism. No provision seems to 
be made in this report for carrying forward and reporting upon 
the "Disposition deferred" cases. Again the details relative to 
disposition are incomplete and misleading. The really signifi- 
cant question to be answered relative to the 342 truancy cases 
reported during 1912-1913 is how many truants were actually 
returned to school (was this the case of the child or children 
of the one parent brought before the Justice Court or of those 
children (16) required to report to the truant officer each week?) 



292 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



and the character of the attendance thereafter. However, these 
and other important questions could be promptly and completely 
answered only by an attendance department organized and con- 
ducted on a broad educational basis. 

Critical Comment 

With the wholly inadequate facilities now provided, it would 
be unfair to the present officer to criticise his methods of work 
or to contrast them with those of a properly organized attend- 
ance department. It is evident that the Board of School Direc- 
tors has forgotten that Portland is no longer a small, compact 
town, the school attendance affairs of which could be cared for 
by one officer, and has been unwilling to take measures to secure 
that quality of regular attendance upon the public schools de- 
manded alike by the Compulsory Attendance Law and for the 
most economical use of the educational advantages of the school 
system. The attendance department, as represented by the single 
truant officer, has been regarded almost wiiolly from the narrow 
point of view of its police function, that is, of caring for the 
more aggravated cases of non-attendance. The larger and far 
more important function of such a department is that of disclos- 
ing and treating the causes that underlie truancy, irregular at- 
tendance, incorrigibility and early withdrawal from school. The 
defects of the present "police" position of the attendance de- 
partment have been again and again indicated to the Board of 
School Directors in the reports of the truant officer. In par- 
ticular has he called attention to the necessity of making proper 
provision for delinquent and incorrigible children. This neces- 
sity has been fully supported by the records of his own office, 
as well as the records of the Juvenile Court. In view of the rec- 
ognized importance of the regular attendance of children upon 
school as a large factor for the most economical and effective 
utilization of the facilities of the public school system of the 
city, and in view of the existing situation in American cities 
which demonstrate the necessity of constant and competent 
oversight as a condition of regularity, we recommend: 

BECOMMENDATIONS 

1. That there be created in the school department a bureau 
or division of school attendance, at the head of which shall be 
an officer known as the Superintendent of School Attendance; 
that at least five attendance officers be appointed for service 
under this superintendent, for the oversight and betterment of 
school attendance in general, for the enforcement of the Com- 
pulsory Education Law, and those parts of the Child Labor Law 
for which truant officers are responsible, and for general out-of- 
school supervision of incorrigible and delinquent children. 



CHAP. XV. CENSUS AND ATTENDANCE 293 

2. That the taking and care of the school census records 
of the city be placed under the charge of the Superintendent of 
Attendance. 

During 1911-1912, Portland's position among certain cities 
in the country, for which information is available, concerning 
the expense of the enforcement of compulsory education and 
truancy laws, may be exhibited by the following figures, show- 
ing the expenditures for this purpose per thousand enrollment 
in elementary schools : 

Cambridge (Mass.), $272; Denver (Colo.), $207; Louisville 
(Ky.), $200; Kansas City (Mo.), $172; Oakland (Cal.), $141; 
Providence (R. I.), $122; Minneapolis (Minn.), $106; Omaha 
(Neb.), $102; Spokane (Wash.), $76; Portland, $45. 

Portland needs to increase both the dignity and the expense 
for its school attendance department. 



294 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Chapter XVI 

RECORDS AND REPORTS* 

(Elliott) 
Record of Board Proceedings 

The minutes of the proceedings and the memoranda of the 
transactions of the Roard of School Directors and its commit- 
tees are recorded by the School Clerk promptly and in complete 
and satisfactory form. Moreover, the conduct of the affairs of 
the Board is greatly facilitated by the efficient mechanical prep- 
aration of all matters brought before it or its committees for 
consideration. While the mechanical procedure for making and 
caring for the records of Board and committee actions is enti- 
tled to approval, the question naturally arises in a school system 
of this size whether or not the minutes of the proceedings of the 
Board and the memoranda of its principal transactions should 
not be regularly and systematically printed. This would enable 
all the members of the Board to have ready and convenient ac- 
cess to the record of past actions, and futhermore would encour- 
age a wider appreciation on the part of citizens of the functions 
and activities of the Board. 

At any rate, the written (typewritten) minutes and 
memoranda should be more fully indexed and cross-referenced 
than under the present plan. While practically the Clerk is 
now able, through his constant and intimate participation in 
the affairs of the Board, to serve as a reliable source of 
information relative to previous actions of the Board, these 
records should be in a form independent of any single 
officer for their proper usefulness. 

The Annual Report 

The Board of School Directors complies with the legal 
requirements imposed upon school boards in districts of the 
first class, "to make an annual printed report to the tax- 



* The official recorded proceedings of the Board of Educa- 
tion for the past year have been examined in detail. In con- 
nection with the presentation of the critical estimate relative 
to the annual report of the Board of School Directors, the annual 
reports for the past ten years— Thirtieth (1902-1903) to Thirty- 
ninth (1911-1912), inclusive), have been reviewed. For a com- 
plete list of the administrative forms and blanks submitted for 
examination, see pp. 300-2. Opportunity has not been sufficient 
during the Survey to make a critical estimate of the forms and 
blanks belonging to other departments than the educational de- 
partment. 



CHAP. XVI. RECORDS AND REPORTS 295 

payers of said district" (Lord's Oregon Statutes, Sec. 4102). 
This annual report is usually issued during the summer and, 
though indicating on the title page as being for the year 
ending with the close of school in June, contains the School 
Clerk's report, addressed to the legal voters, for the year 
ending December 15th; the School Director's report, addressed 
to the taxpayers, and submitted to an annual meeting gen- 
erally held during the last week of December, and the report 
of the Superintendent of Schools, addressed to the School 
Board, for the annual school year ending in June. 

Contents of the Annual Report 
The following enumeration of the principal items con- 
tained in the school report for 1911-1912 is typical of these 
reports for the past decade: 

School Clerk's Report. (2 pages.) 

A brief itemized statement of receipts, disbursements and 
indebtedness for the past year; and a tabulated summary 
of the school census. Appended is a formal statement 
of the special auditing committee. 

School Director's Report. (4 pages.) 

A brief commentary upon matters concerning chiefly 
finance and the school plant, together with an estimate 
of expenditures for the coming year. 

Superintendent of Schools. (47 pages.) 

As a "report of the condition and progress of the public 
schools" contains: annual and monthly statistical tables 
of enrollment, attendance, and discipline; ages of pupils 
in different classes of elementary schools, nativity of 
pupils, number of teachers. (10 pages.) 

Tabulated statement showing name, place of graduation, 
years of experience, years in Portland schools, certifi- 
cate held, school and grade of position of teachers 
employed during the year. (19 pages.) 

Name of pupils promoted from the grammar grades to 
the high school during the year. (10 pages.) 

High school graduates and commencement programs 
(8 pages.) 

Appendix to Superintendent's Report. (13*4 pages.) 

Reports of principals of high schools. Confined ex- 
clusively to a statement of the enrollment in the several 
courses and subjects, together with the number of 
credits attempted and the number earned during the 
year and the number of graduates. (4 pages.) 
Schedule of teachers' salaries. (1 page.) 
Corps of teachers for 1912-1913. (7% pages.) 
School calendar for 1912-1913 and announcements as to 
teachers' meetings and teachers' examinations. (1 page.) 

Clerk's Supplementary Reports. (43 pages.) 
Boundaries of school district. (1 page.) 
Boundaries of sub-districts. (14 pages.) 
List of Text Books used in high and elementary schools. 
(2 pages.) 



296 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

Tabular statement relative to school buildings; date of 
construction, number of rooms, heating, cleaning, and fire 
systems. (6 pages.) 

Location, description and area of property owned by 
school district. (4 pages.) 

Estimated cash value of property owned by school dis- 
trict. (1 page.) 

List of school directors and officers since 1851. (2 pages.) 

School janitors for 1912-1913. (1 page.) 

Schedule of janitors' salaries. (% page.) 

Number of teachers of different grades of position, June 
30, 1912. (i/ 2 page.) 

Comparative statement of receipts and disbursements, 11 
years. (1 page.) 

Number of teachers employed in each school, classified 
according to salary paid. (2 pages.) 

Sundry statistical and financial statements and supple- 
mentary memoranda. (7 pages.) 

Index. (2 pages.) 

Insert. Showing complete detail of disbursements by items 
and by schools for year ending June 30, 1912. 

With the possible exception of the financial statements* 
this annual report of the public schools has remained sub- 
stantially the same in form and scope during the past ten 
years. During that time, (excepting for 1906-1907 and 1911- 
1912), these reports have also contained the detailed outline 
of the courses of study in elementary and secondary schools. 
(195 pages, 1910-1911.) The several items given in the Clerk's 
supplementary report noted above are to be found only in the 
last two annual reports. 

The Annual Report is not a report within the proper 
meaning of that word. It has become merely a mechanical 
record of only certain features of the formal operation of 
the school system. It gives no evidence that the school author- 
ities have been influenced by the widespread movement of 
recent years for the betterment and increased usefulness of such 
reports. 

Functions of the Annual Report 

The annual report of the public school system should be 
in such form and content as to serve for a ready means for 
community publicity as to the real progress and performances 
of the schools, and as an effective instrument for stimulating 
the citizens of the school district to action for meeting the 
demonstrated needs of the schools. It should be the chief 
means of communication between the people and their 
authorized officials as to the conduct of public school 
affairs. The report should stand not onty as permanent evi- 
dence of the honesty of that conduct, but as a mark of the 
capacity of the Board and its officers to serve as educational 

* See p. 300. 



CHAP. XVI. RECORDS AND REPORTS 297 

leaders in the community. People in this day are not affected 
in their attitude toward education except in a merely passive 
way by perfunctory testimony as to the honest conduct 
of public affairs. The people of the modern city need, for 
the best development of the educational system, that stimula- 
tion that comes from public-spirited, earnest, energetic, far- 
sighted boards and officials, capable of causing them to under- 
stand the meaning and possibilities of the public schools. 
Only thus will there be developed a right quality of con- 
fidence and a proper degree of public co-operation on the 
part of the people. Upon such confidence and co-operation 
the public schools are ultimately built. Complacency is not 
confidence. Proper concurrence in official action is not 
popular co-operation by the people in that action. 

The present annual report is not an effective report 
because it is chiefly a collection of cold, conventional facts, 
loosely arranged and presented in a purely formal manner, 
and without any indication of their vital relationship to the 
efficiency or growth of the educational system. If the 
people of Portland have been slow in their response to the 
increasing and enlarging needs of the school system, this is 
due in part at least to the failure of the responsible school 
authorities to emphasize their educational stewardship of child- 
dren. The educational records must deal, first of all, with 
children and their education. There is no value in accounting 
for the expenditure of public money for public schools unless 
that accounting is accompanied by a demonstration of results 
and products. The difficulty is not with the financial ac- 
counts, but with the educational accounts. They are inade- 
quate because the blanks for the gathering of data and in- 
formation have not been designed to record the real edu- 
cational experience of the schools. This experience must 
be recorded before it may be reported and interpreted for 
the guidance and increased intelligence of the citizens of the 
community. In other words, Portland's school accounts keep 
track of dollars, rather than of children. 

Record Forms and Blanks 

The numerous statistical forms and administrative blanks 
listed on pages 300-2 of this section of the report are easily 
separable into two general groups: 

a. Those of a temporary or routine character, devised 
and employed primarily to expedite the operation of the 
existing machinery of the school system; to adjust this ma- 
chinery to the established practices and customs of the 
outside business world; to save time and to check honesty. 

b. Those of a more special and permanent character, 
used primarily for the determination of the educational 



298 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

efficiency and productivity of the school organization; and 

therefore, as a possible basis for the betterment of the 

machinery and the control of the machinery of the school 
system. 

By far the larger number of the records and reports now 
used in both the business and educational departments belong 
to the first group. Our general estimate, after an examination 
of all of the forms and blanks is, that there are too many 
of them; that too much importance is given to trivial and 
unessential operations. The teachers and principals are re- 
quired to devote too much time and energy to the making of 
records and reports which are not and cannot be used for 
the purpose of checking the results of teaching and pro- 
moting the improvement of the educational system of a city. 

It is obviously beyond the immediate intent and purpose 
of this Survey to make a minute, critical analysis of the 
several statistical forms and administrative blanks. More 
useful, perhaps, would be some indication as to what funda- 
mental records of the operation of the school system should 
be kept and reported. The particular forms and devices for 
obtaining the necessary data can then be more effectively 
determined by the active supervisory and inspecting staff. 

Fundamental Educational Records Needed 

The weakness of the present system may be said to lie 
in the absence of those statistical records that enable edu- 
cational officials to determine the extent to which the edu- 
cational system actually serves the purpose of economically 
educating all the children of the community. As a con- 
spicuous instance of this it may be pointed out that since 
1897 Portland has had a distinctive scheme of classification 
and promotion of pupils in elementary schools. Each year 
the superintendent of schools has presented a table showing 
the enrollment and ages of pupils in each of the several 
groups and divisions. Nowhere is there to be found a record 
of the promotions and failures of pupils, indicative of the 
advantages of this scheme. 

What fundamental items should the educational account- 
ing or recording plan of the city contain? The following 
are suggested for consideration. (Those indicated by an * 
are not now provided for in the existing system of records.) 

*1. A complete, accurate, and continuous school census, 
tabulated and summarized so as to show the number of chil- 
dren residing in each sub-district by sex, for each year-age 
group between four and nineteen years, inclusive; the number 
of boys and girls of each age attending public, private, and 
parochial schools; and the number between fourteen and 



CHAP. XVI. RECORDS AND REPORTS 299 

sixteen years of age not attending school, in possession of 
work permits, and the character of employment. 

*2. An individual, cumulative card, providing for the 
record of the complete school career of every child; showing 
name, place and date of birth, name and occupation of parent 
or guardian, residence, date of admission to school, length 
of attendance, and date of promotion from each grade or 
class, condition of health, character of conduct and quality 
of accomplishment in each grade and class. (This is the most 
fundamental of all the school records. From it all the col- 
lective statistical exhibits are developed.) 

3. Enrollment,* promotions,* non-promotions, by grades 
and schools. 

4. Distribution of enrollment by ages and grades, or 
classes. (Present report gives this for elementary school only, 
and for but one term of the year.) 

*5. Distribution of withdrawals by ages and causes, 
(j. Average daily attendance by schools. 

*7. Distribution of attendance. 

*8. Non-promotion by age, grade, and cause. 

*9. Failures by studies and grades. 

*10. Beginners, distributed by ages. 

*11. Graduates, distributed by ages. 

*12. Per capita attendance cost for each school properly 
distributed among the major items of expenditure, accom- 
panied with proper explanation of increase or decrease from 
year to jear. 

*13. An individual, cumulative card, providing for the 
record of the teaching career of every teacher on the staff, 
showing name, age, residence, education and training, teach- 
ing assignments, and teaching success, as determined by 
supervisory and inspectorial officers. 

It is not possible here to describe in detail the method 
of tabulating and summarizing necessary for a proper inter- 
pretation of such records.* This procedure has become a 
highly specialized work, and to be properly done should 
be under the care of a specially trained individual. 

All of the findings developed from these records would 
not be printed each year. Some of them would be printed 
every two years, some every five years. When published, 
however, they would serve as definite, concrete evidence of 
the condition and progress of the public school system as a 
whole and of its several parts. 



*For suggested forms of records and other pertinent ex- 
planations reference is made to the REPORT OF THE COM- 
MITTEE ON UNIFORM RECORDS AND REPORTS OF THE 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, published by the 
Bureau of Education, 1912. 



300 SCHOOL SURVEY BE PORT 

Financial Records 
The school clerk has kept his records of the financial re- 
ceipts and expenditures in accordance with that classifica- 
tion that has come to be regarded as the best and most 
approved. Portland, therefore, belongs to that relatively 
small number of cities able to make their financial report 
to the United States Bureau of Education according to the 
form and classification desired. A brief explanation of the 
procedure of the school clerk's office, as regards financial 
operations, is conclusive of the mechanical effectiveness 
which has been established there. 

Recommendation 

That there be established in connection with the office 
of Superintendent of Schools a division to be known as the 
Division of Statistics and Educational Investigation, to be 
under the charge of a director whose chief function will be 
to gather, in proper form, all of the necessary data concern- 
ing the operation of the school S3^stem that will enable the 
administrative and supervisory staff to evaluate the practices 
and methods of the schools, and to give to the people of 
the community a reasonable basis for an intelligent appre- 
ciation of the true worth of the results being obtained in 
and through the schools. 

Report and Record Forms in Use 

At our request, the school clerk and the superintendent 
of schools furnished us with copies of all of the various 
statistical, record, and routine blanks used in the educational 
and business departments. These are enumerated in the 
following lists : 

1. By the Superintendent of Schools; 

1. Application blank for new teachers. 

2. Information for applicants for teachers' positions. 

3. Letter of inquiry: Teachers' references. 

4. Teachers' Certificates. 

5. Teachers' Life Certificates. 

6. Teachers' Reapplication Blank. 

7. Teachers' Request for Change of Work. 

8. Visit Report of Teachers. 

9. Teachers' Final Certificate of Completed Service. 

10. Form for Teachers' Names, Grades and Addresses. 

11. Data for Teachers' Pay Roll. 

12. Principals' Record of Teachers' Attendance and Tardiness. 

13. Census Form. 

14. Superintendent's Transfer for Pupils. 

15. Principal's Transfer for Pupils. 

16. Principal's Suspension Notice to Parents. 

17. Principal's Suspension Notice to Superintendent. 

18. Pupil's Reinstatement Blank. 



CHAP. XVI. RECORDS AND REPORTS 301 



19. Book List and Price List — Elementary Schools. 

20. Book List for High Schools. 

21. Pupil's Report Card for Primary Grades. 

22. Pupil's Report Card for Grammar Grades. 

23. Pupil's Report Card for High Schools. 

24. Teacher's Monthly Report of Attendance of Pupils. 

25. Nativity of Pupils. 

26. Teacher's Semi-Annual Report for Promotion of Pupils. 

27. Result Sheet (i. e., Report of Pupils' Monthly Standings). 

28. Report on Number of Pupils Belonging to Various Classes. 

29. Principal's Annual Report of Enrollment and Attendance. 

30. Desk Seating Report. 

31. Annual Summary of Enrollment and Attendance. 

32. Fire Drill Report. 

33. Requisition Blank for Principals. 

2. By the Truant Officer; 

1. Truant Officer's Record (of individual cases investigated). 

2. Special Report by Principal of Pupil to Truant Officer. 

3. Extract from Oregon School Laws, 1911, — Unsanitary Pupils. 

4. Extracts from Oregon Compulsory Education Laws and 

Child Labor Laws for Information of Parents. 

5. Extract from Child Labor Laws. 

6. Legal Notice by Truant Officer to Parents. 

7. Physician's Certificate, — Compulsory Education. 

3. By the Manual Training Departments: 

1. Time Report of Instructor. 

2. Monthly Report of Pupil's Work. 

3. Monthly Report to Principal of Pupil's Attendance. 

4. Equipment Report. 

4. By the Superintendent of Property: 

1. Register of Drawings. 

2. Daily Time Report. 

3. Drawing Receipt. 

4. Progress Report. 

5. Form of Agreement with Contractors. 

6. Cost Record — Plans, Specifications and Superintendence. 

7. Announcement and Instructions to Bidders. 

8. Standard Form of Contract. 

9. Shop Order. 

10. Directions for Care of Blackboards. 

5. By the Purchasing Agent: 

1. Stock Card. 

2. Receipt for Goods from Stock Room. 

3. Receipt for Goods from Stores. 

4. Requisition for Purchases. 

5. Order for Supplies. 

6. Order for Repair Material. 

7. Emergency Order. 

8. Store Room Daily Report to Clerk. 

6. By the School Clerk: 

1. Employees' Pay Roll, Distribution of Charges. 

2. Employees' Pav Roll, Receipt for Salary. 

3. Employees' Daily Report. 

4. Janitor's Reapplication. 

5. Janitor's Application (new) . 

6. Janitor's Notice of Election. 



302 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

7. Janitor's Letter of Inquiry Regarding Qualifications, etc. 

8. Janitor's Data for Pay Roll. 

9. Insurance, Record of Agents. 

10. Insurance, Record of Companies. 

11. Special Form to be Attached to Insurance Policies. 

12. Insurance Application. 

13. Election: Notice to Judges and Clerks. 

14. Election: Acceptance of Judges and Clerks. 

15. Election: Notice of Place. 

16. Election: Acceptance of Place. 

17. Election: Tally Sheet. 

18. Election: Instructions to Judges and Clerks. 

19. Census, Instructions. 

20. Census, Summary. 

21. Census Form. 

22. Teachers: Notice of Election (day). 

23. Teachers: Notice of Election (night). 

24. Teacher's Acceptance. 

25. Teacher's Excuse for Absence or Tardiness. 

26. Teacher's Notice of Receipt of Excuse. 

27. Supervisor's Registration (service) Card. 

28. Record of Certification and Service — Teacher's. 

29. Notice of Retirement Fund. 

30. Report of Teachers' Certificates. 

31. Permit by Parents for Use of Machinery by Pupils in Man- 

ual Training and Trade Schools. 

32. Teacher's Monthly Pay Roll. 

33. Superintendent's Certification of Pay Roll. 

34. Order for Teachers' Salaries. 

35. School Property Reports (monthly). 

36. Supply Returns. 

37. Tuition Notice. 

38. Pay Roll Claim Sheet. 

39. Bill Head. 

40. Letter Accompanying Voucher. 

41. Letter Accompanying Draft. 

42. Voucher. 

43. Nature of Claim Allowed. 

44. Nature of Board and Committee Meetings. 

45. Program — School Directors' Meeting. 

46. Committee Report. 

47. Clerk's Monthly Financial Statement. 

48. Directory — Board of School Directors. — 

49. Daily Cash Statement. 

50. Principals' Oral Reports. 

51. Garbage Receipt. 

52. Standard Form of Contractor's Bond. 

53. Indemnifying Bond. 

54. Option. 

55. Depository Bond. 

56. Auditing Committee Monthly Report. 

Limitations of time have prevented any complete and 
detailed critical examination of those forms from the business 
department. 



CHAP. XVII. COSTS OF THE SYSTEM 303 

Chapter XVII 

COSTS OF THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 
A Fundamental Assumption 
The members of the Survey staff have, from the first, as- 
sumed that what the taxpayers and citizens of Portland were 
most interested in was, not primarily how they could reduce the 
present expenses for education, but how they could obtain a bel- 
ter school system for the money they now spend, or for such 
additional and reasonable sums as might seem to be wise to 
spend. We have not for a moment assumed that a community, 
composed of such an intelligent class of people as is found in 
Portland, would be short-sighted enough to want to stop the 
development of their schools in order to try to save a little 
money. The economic loss to the city by the deflection of peo- 
ple of means and intelligence to the cities of Washington and 
California, which would inevitably follow the adoption of such 
a plan, would greatly outweigh any possible saving which might 
be effected. The surest means by which the city may retain its 
present high standing and its position of supremacy in its terri- 
tory is for it to spend money liberally to keep its schools abreast 
of the changing educational needs. This the Survey staff has 
from the first assumed to be the wish of the people, and such a 
purpose has also been assumed to have been the actuating motive 
with the taxpayers of the district, assembled in meeting, when 
they adopted the resolution authorizing and creating the School 
Survey. The members of the Survey staff have kept this belief 
in mind in all their consideration of the problem, and in mak- 
ing the numerous constructive suggestions contained in the dif- 
ferent chapters of this report. 

In a number of the preceding chapters the question of ad- 
ditional costs has been considered, and it does not seem neces- 
sary further to expand the treatment here. To these preceding 
chapters the reader is referred for a more detailed statement as 
to needs, and reasons therefore, and only summaries will be 
presented here. Instead, this chapter will be devoted to a con- 
sideration of only two things: (1) What is the relative rank of 
the district now in the matter of school expenditures? and (2) 
Can the district reasonably afford to spend more money on its 
schools than it now does? 

Returning to the reports of the U. S. Census Bureau, for the 
1910 census of the United States, used at length in compiling the 
tables given in Chapter VI, and taking the same 37 American 
cities used there (see Table 4, p. 70), which in 1910 had be- 
tween 100,000 and 350,000 inhabitants, and compiling the costs 
for education for each of these, we get the following tables. 
These show the comparative costs for the maintenance of schools 
for the different cities, and Portland's position in the list. 



304 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

(1) RELATIVE RANK OF THE DISTRICT IN SCHOOL 
EXPENDITURES 

Comparative Per Capita Costs 

The first of these tables shows the rank of the city in the 
cost for education, measured per capita of the total population. 
Portland is here seen to be in a middle position, there being 18 
cities which spend more, and 18, of which seven are Southern, 
which spend less. The per capita expenditure in Portland is 
also seen to be below the average for all cities of 30,000 or over 
in the United States. 

Table 26 

Expenditures for Schools Per Capita of the Total Population 

1. Washington, D. C $6.27 

2. Newark, N. J 5.79 

3. Denver, Colo 5.49 

4. Spokane, Wash 5.46 

5. Worcester, Mass 5.39 

6. Minneapolis, Minn 5.35 

7. Seattle, Wash 5.29 

8. New Haven, Conn 5.12 

9. Cambridge, Mass 5.01 

10. Omaha, Neb 4.74 

11. Syracuse, N. Y 4.56 

12. Rochester, N. Y 4.51 

13. Providence, R. 1 4.51 

14. Grand Rapids, Mich 4.48 

15. Toledo, Ohio 4.46 

16. Dayton, Ohio 4.32 

17. Kansas City, Mo 4.31 

18. Indianapolis, Ind 4.30 

19. PORTLAND, ORE 4.29 

20. Scranton, Penn 4.27 

21. Columbus, Ohio 4.21 

22. Jersey Citv, N. J 4.14 

23. Paterson, N. J 4.09 

24. St. Paul, Minn 4.04 

25. Oakland, Cal 4.03 

26. Albany, N. Y 3.98 

27. Fall River, Mass 3.95 

28. Lowell, Mass 3.89 

29. Los Angeles, Cal 3.77 

30. Louisville, Ky 3.38 

31. Rridgeport, Conn 3.01 

32. New Orleans, La 2.89 

33. Memphis, Tenn 2.88 

34. Nashville, Tenn 2.62 

35. Richmond, Va 2.34 

36. Atlanta, Ga 2.32 

37. Rirmingham, Ala 2.07 

38. Average, all cities 30,000 or over 4.62 

Since some cities have many children in the total popula- 
tion and others few (see Table 8, p. 77), the percentage of the 



CHAP. XVII. COSTS OF THE SYSTEM 305 

total population which is under fifteen years of age vary- 
ing, for the 37 cities studied, from 18.8% for Portland to 32.3% 
for Fall River, Mass., with an average of 27.3% for all cities in 
the United States, the above table is recalculated, in the one which 
follows, to show the comparative cost of schools for each of the 
37 cities for each person in the total population, after excluding 
all persons under 15 years of age from the count. Due to its 
small number of children, Portland now drops from nineteenth 
to twenty-sixth in the list. Of the 11 cities which spend less, 
two are rich Western cities, one is a poor Eastern city, and six 
are Southern cities. 

Table 27 

Cost for Schools for Each Person in the Total Population Fifteen 
Years of Age or Over 

(Calculated from Tables 26 and 8) 

1. Washington, D. C $8.29 

2. Newark, N. J 8.23 

3. Denver, Colo 7.52 

4. Worcester, Mass 7.39 

5. New Haven, Conn 7.15 

6. Spokane, Wash 7.11 

7. Minneapolis, Minn , 6.98 

8. Cambridge, Mass 6.94 

9. Seattle, Wash 6.60 ' 

10. Omaha, Neb 6.39 

11. Scranton, Pa 6.29 

12. Grand Rapids, Mich 6.14 

13. Providence, R. 1 6.11 

14. Toledo, Ohio 6.07 

15. Syracuse, N. Y 6.02 

16. Rochester, N. Y 5.96 

17. Jersev Citv, N. J 5.96 

18. Fall River, Mass 5.84 

19. Paterson, N. J 5.77 

20. Dayton, Ohio 5.72 

21. Indianapolis, Ind 5.61 

22. Kansas City, Mo 5.47 

23. Columbus, ' Ohio 5.45 

24. St. Paul, Minn 5.38 

25. Lowell, Mass 5.31 

26. PORTLAND, ORE 5.28 

27. Oakland, Cal 5.20 

28. Albany, N. Y 5.14 

29. Los Angeles, Cal 4.72 

30. Louisville, Ky 4.51 

31. Bridgeport, Conn 4.14 

32. New Orleans, La 4.08 

33. Memphis, Tenn 3.75 

34. Nashville, Tenn 3.59 

35. Atlanta, Ga 3.20 

36. Richmond, Va 3.17 

37. Birmingham, Ala 2.92 

38. Average, all cities 30,000 or over 6.33 



306 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

The table which follows next makes the same recalculation 
to determine the cost, measured now only for each adult male 
(21 years or over) in the total population, for each of the 37 
cities. Measured on this basis, due to its large excess of adult 
males (see Table 6, p. 74), Portland now drops to thirty-first 
place in the matter of expenditure for schools, five Southern 
cities and one poor Eastern city alone spending less per adult 
male. 

Table 28 

Cost for Schools for Each Adult Male 

(Calculated from Tables 26 and 6) 

1. Newark, N. J $20.75 

2. Washington, D. C 20.03 

3. Cambridge, Mass 17.34 

4. Worcester, Mass 17.28 

5. New Haven, Conn 16.89 

6. Denver, Colo 16.29 

*7. Minneapolis, Minn 15.33 

8. Scranton, Pa 14.98 

9. Fall River, Mass 14.95 

10. Grand Rapids, Mich 14.69 

11. Providence, R. 1 14.64 

12. Toledo, Ohio 14.25 

13. Spokane, Wash 14.15 

14. Rochester, N. Y 14.14 

15. Syracuse, N. Y 14.00 

16. Paterson, N. J 13.91 

17. Jersey City, N. J 13.71 

18. Omaha, Neb 13.68 

19. Lowell, Mass 13.23 

20. Dayton, Ohio 13.17 

21. Indianapolis, Ind 13.10 

22. Columbus, Ohio 12.57 

23. Seattle, Wash 12.33 

24. Kansas City, Mo 12.25 

25. Albany, N. Y 12.17 

26. St. Paul, Minn 12.03 

27. Oakland. Cal 11.23 

28. Louisville, Ky 11.19 

29. Los Angeles, Cal 10.47 

30. New Orleans, La 10.07 

31. PORTLAND, ORE 10.00 

32. Nashville, Tenn 9.39 

33. Bridgeport, Conn 9.32 

34. Memphis, Tenn 8.52 

35. Atlanta, Ga 8.07 

36. Richmond, Va 8.01 

37. Birmingham, Ala 6.74 

38. Average, all cities 30,000 or over 14.76 

These three tables show how relatively lightly the expense 
for education rests on Portland. Good schools, the best schools 
in fact, could be maintained in Portland with ease. The rank 
of Portland, in per capita expense, low as it is, is still much 



CHAP. XVII. COSTS OF THE SYSTEM 307 

higher than it would be if any allowance were made for the 
much higher salaries paid teachers in the "West. If Portland 
paid as low teachers' salaries as the Eastern cities do, it prob- 
ably would go to the bottom of the list in comparative expen- 
ditures. 

Cost per Pupil Educated 

The low per capita expenditures, shown in Tables 27 and 
28, are in large measure due to the extremely small number of 
children of school age in the Portland district, and not to a 
low expense per child educated. In fact, in this respect, the 
city averages up very well with other Western cities, as is shown 
in Tables 29 and 30l 

In attempting to calculate Tables 29 and 30 one is met 
with an important difficulty in obtaining data. Up to a very 
few years ago there were about as many systems of bookkeeping 
and calculating costs in use as there were city school systems. 
Less than three years ago the U. S. Bureau of the Census and the 
U. S. Bureau of Education agreed upon certain standard forms 
for city school accounting, and these forms have since been 
adopted by quite a number of our American cities. Naturally 
more small than large cities have adopted the new uniform plan, 
because the small cities have found it easier to rearrange their 
bookkeeping. Of the 37 cities so far used for comparisons, 
only about one-half have adopted these new forms, and rear- 
ranged their accounting methods accordingly. For that reason 
a comparison of costs between all of the 37 is impossible. 

Still more, due to the larger salaries paid both teachers and 
janitors in the West, and the larger cost of both materials and 
service needed for annual operation and maintenance, a com- 
parison of costs — per pupil — educated between two such cities 
as Birmingham, Ala., or Fall River, Mass., with their low teach- 
ers' salaries and large school classes, and Portland, Or., with its 
small classes and relatively high salaries for elementary teachers, 
is not of much value, because two entirely different types of 
school systems are compared. 

Most of the Western cities, where maintenance costs are 
somewhat the same, have adopted the new system of account- 
ing, and report separate costs, for different items and for dif- 
ferent kinds of schools, to the U. S. Commissioner of Education. 
Portland has adopted this system of accounting, so that com- 
parisons of cost between most of the Western cities, for both 
elementary and secondary schools, are now possible. Such com- 
parions are made in the two following tables, using Western 
cities of 25,000 or more inhabitants only, and using figures pub- 
lished last year for all. 



308 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 



Table 29 

**Cost for Elementary Schools per Pupil in Average Daily 

Attendance 

(Calculated from data given in the 1912 Report U. S. Com- 
missioner of Education, Vol. II) 

Pueblo, Colo $34.30 

Kansas City, Mo 34.88 

Omaha, Neb 35.56 

Tacoma, Wash 37.07 

Denver, Colo 38.12 

San Jose, Cal 38.16 

Salt Lake City, Utah 41.79 

PORTLAND, ORE 41.95 

Minneapolis, Minn 42.31 

Oakland, Cal 42.53 

San Francisco, Cal 42.82 

San Diego, Cal 42.91 

•Seattle, Wash 43.92 

Spokane, Wash 44.33 

*Los Angeles, Cal 50.38 

tBerkeley, Cal 51.72 



* Information obtained direct, and approximately correct. 
Does not use uniform accounting forms. 

t This city maintains a complete system of intermediate 
schools. 

Table 30 

**Cost for Secondary Schools per Pupil in Average Daily 
Attendance 

(Calculated from same source as Table 29) 

Per cent of total 

Cost per pupil attendance in 

City per year high schools. 

Berkeley, Cal $ 66.11 25* 

Tacoma, Wash 71.80 15* 

Omaha, Neb 75.11 11* 

PORTLAND, ORE 76.42 12* 

Salt Lake City, Utah 78.89 9* 

San Jose, Cal 80.33 21* 

Oakland, Cal 80.94 13* 

Kansas City. Mo 82.30 14* 

Denver, Colo 82.78 13* 

Minneapolis, Minn 84.83 14* 

Pueblo, Colo 86.73 12* 

Spokane, Wash 92.56 14* 

*Los Angeles, Cal 120.07 15.15* 

'Seattle, Wash 101.14 16* 

San Diego, Cal 104.06 15* 



* Does not use uniform accounting forms. Information ob- 
tained direct, and approximately correct. 

**Does not include night schools or vacation schools. 



CHAP. XVII. COSTS OF THE SYSTEM 309 

The costs for elementary education in Portland are thus 
seen to be about what other Western cities average, while the 
costs for secondary education are lower. This we should expect 
from the discussion of teachers' salaries, in Chapter V. 

Size of Classes as Determining Costs 

These figures do not reveal the whole truth of the matter, 
however, as the cost per pupil educated in the elementary schools 
varies much, according to other factors than teachers' salaries. 
The most important of these is the average number of pupils in 
each class-room. Portland's elementary school classes are 
smaller than all but two or three other cities in the above list. 
This is a feature of the administrative organization of the school 
system which is to be greatly commended, and the size of classes 
in Portland ought not to be increased. Thirty children to a 
teacher are about as many as a teacher can teach well, and the 
present Portland classes of 35 to 38 are still a little large. The 
classes in Portland are not too small; they are merely too large 
elsewhere. 

The cost per pupil per year, however, is materially in- 
creased when such small classes are maintained over what would 
be the case if 45 or 50 children were given to each teacher, as 
may be seen from the following, calculated on a basis of a 
cost of $1,500 per year per classroom: 

Size of class. Cost per pupil per year 

30 pupils $50.00 

35 " 42.86 

40 " 37.50 

45 " 33.33 

50 " 30.00 

Reasonable Per Capita Costs 

As many of the cities given above in Table 29 teach their 
children in classes of 45 or more, the comparison is not so fa- 
vorable to Portland as might at first seem. To provide the 
special classes and schools needed to meet well the educational 
needs of the city, as pointed out in Chapters XI and XIV, Port- 
land ought to spend, considering the size of classes maintained, 
close to $50 per pupil in average daily attendance per year. The 
intermediate schools, recommended in Chapters IX and XI, ought 
to cost about $70 per pupil per year. The high schools, too, 
are costing too little. The teachers are not paid a high enough 
maximum to retain the best, and they are also required to teach 
too many periods a day. To provide the kind of educational 
conditions best suited to the needs of such a city as Portland, 
with the recommended additions to the high schools, a cost of 
$90 to $100 per pupil in average daily attendance in the high 
schools is not too much. 



310 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

These estimates would include the additions recommended in 
the preceding chapters, and would add somewhere from 20 to 
25 per cent to the present annual cost for maintenance and in- 
struction. This would add about one mill to the school tax of 
the district. Such additions, with the right kind of adminis- 
trative organization and leadership, would soon give Portland a 
thoroughly good school system, and one which would answer 
the needs of the city for some years to come. 

2. CAN THE DISTRICT REASONABLY AFFORD TO SPEND 
THIS ADDED SUM ON ITS SCHOOLS? 

To show that the Portland school district can afford such an 
addition, and afford it with ease, Tables 31 and 32 are intro- 
duced. 

Table 31 

Real Wealth Behind Each Dollar Spent for School Maintenance 
(A combination of Tables 26 and 10) 

1. Atlanta, Ga $559.00 

2. Los Angeles, Cal 538.00 

3. Richmond, Va 536.00 

4. Birmingham, Ala 479.00 

5. PORTLAND, ORE 456.00 

6. Memphis, Tenn 449.00 

7. Indianapolis, Ind 408.00 

8. St. Paul, Minn * 407.00 

9. Spokane, Wash 370.00 

10. Seattle, Wash 364.00 

11. Oakland, Cal 354.00 

12. Omaha, Neb 352.00 

13. Nashville, Tenn 350.00 

14. Louisville, Ky 326.00 

15. New Orleans, La 314.00 

16. Minneapolis, Minn 294.00 

17. Kansas City, Mo 280.00 

18. Bridgeport, Conn 276.00 

19. Providence, R. 1 256.00 

20. Albany, N. Y 234.00 

21. Denver, Colo 231.00 

22. Rochester, N. Y 225.00 

23. Columbus, Ohio 221.00 

24. Jersey City, N. J 218.00 

25. Scranton, Pa 216.00 

26. Washington, D. C 212.00 

27. Dayton, Ohio 208.00 

28. Grand Rapids, Mich 207.00 

29. Cambridge, Mass 204.00 

30. Syracuse, N. Y 202.00 

31. Fall River, Mass 196.00 

32. Lowell, Mass 194.00 

33. Paterson, N. J 185.00 

34. New Haven, Conn 185.00 

35. Toledo, Ohio 184.00 

36. Worcester, Mass 180.00 

37. Newark, N. J 165.00 



CHAP. XVII. COSTS OF THE SYSTEM 



311 



Table 31 shows the real wealth, for each of the 37 cities 
studied, which lies behind each dollar spent for the yearly 
maintenance of schools by the city, and Table 32 shows the rate 
of tax in mills required to raise this amount for maintenance, 
based on real wealth (see Table 10, p. 80), and assuming no 
delinquencies in taxes. While taxes are based on assessed 
wealth and not on actual wealth, the great variations in the 
rate of assessment make real wealth the only proper basis of 
comparison between cities. 

Table 32 

Comparative Rates of Tax Required for School Maintenance 

(in mills) Based on the Real Wealth of Cities 

(A combination of Tables 26 and 10) 

1. Newark, N. J 00606 

2. Toledo, Ohio 00543 

3. New Haven, Conn 00541 

4. Paterson, N. J 00541 

5. Lowell, Mass 00515 

6. Fall River, Mass 00510 

7. Worcester, Mass 00505 

8. Syracuse, N. Y 00495 

9. Cambridge, Mass 00490 

10. Grand Rapids, Mich 00483 

11. Washington, D. C 00471 

12. Scranton, Pa 00463 

13. Jersey City, N. J 00459 

14. Columbus," Ohio 00452 

15. Rochester, N. Y 00444 

16. Denver, Colo 00433 

17. Albany, N. Y 00427 

18. Dayton, Ohio 00421 

19. Providence, R. 1 00391 

20. Rridgeport, Conn 00362 

21. Kansas City, Mo 00357 

22. Mineapolis, Minn 00340 

23. New Orleans, La 00315 

24. Louisville, Ky 00307 

25. Nashville, Tenn 00285 

26. Omaha, Neb 00284 

27. Oakland, Cal 00283 

28. Seattle, Wash 00275 

29. Spokane, Wash 00270 

30. Indianapolis, Ind 00245 

31. St. Paul, Minn 00244 

32. Memphis, Tenn 00222 

33. PORTLAND, ORE 00219 

34. Birmingham, Ala 00209 

35. Richmond, Va 00186 

36. Los Angeles, Cal 00184 

37. Atlanta, Ga 00180 

That Portland can afford the estimated needed increases, 
these tables show, without question. Portland could even double 
its expenses for yearly school maintenance, and still pay a rate 



312 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

of tax for schools, based on real wealth, which would be less 
than that paid by almost every Eastern city. These Eastern 
cities, with their large school populations, large foreign elements, 
much lower per capita wealth, and high taxes, are paying high 
rates of school tax to try to do what Portland can do with ease, 
and on a much lower rate of school tax. These Eastern cities 
pay lower salaries to their elementary teachers, teach their chil- 
dren in larger classes, are compelled to build their school build- 
ings by bonding, and have to maintain many half-day classes, 
because they cannot build buildings enough; while Portland, on 
less than half the real tax they pay, pays relatively good salaries 
to its elementary teachers, teaches its children in classes much 
nearer the proper size, pays for nearly all its school buildings 
the year they are erected, and has not a half-day class in the 
entire city. On the contrary, the district has a number of vacant 
rooms. 

Portland's Educational Opportunity. 

Excepting probably only Los Angeles, no other large city in 
the United States has such an excellent opportunity to make for 
itself a school system which shall be second to none in the 
country, and one the excellence of which will make Portland 
known educationally all over the United States, and attract to 
it many new residents of a desirable class. It will require some 
more money, to be sure, and a little higher tax for schools, but 
not a large amount, while the returns from the investment, — 
educational, social, moral, and commercial, — will be very large. 
The commercial returns might well be mentioned first, instead 
of last. Los Angeles has utilized the opportunity which her 
wealth and the character of her population have given her, and 
has developed one of the very best school systems, large or 
small, to be found anywhere in the United States. There is lit- 
tle question but that the present social and industrial prosperity 
of the city is in no small measure due to the very broad scope 
and the very high excellence maintained throughout the school 
system. Portland, by reason of its very large wealth, the high 
character of its people, the freedom (practically so) of the 
school district from debt, and the good foundation upon which 
to build, could, in a few years, and with but a small increase 
in the tax rate for maintenance, — if under wise, intelligent, and 
capable leadership, — easily become the educational rival of Los 
Angeles, and her schools would acquire a reputation, as those 
of Los Angeles have done, throughout the whole United States. 
Practically no other large city in the entire United States has today 
so great an opportunity for educational leadership almost within 
its grasp. 



CHAP. XVII. COSTS OF THE SYSTEM 313 

Present Needs of the Portland School System 

This opportunity the school authorities of Portland ought 
to seize, for educational as well as for commercial reasons. The 
present school system is much in the condition of a manufactur- 
ing establishment which is running on a low grade of efficiency. 
The waste of material is great and the output is costly, — in part 
because the workmen in the establishment are not supplied with 
enough of the right kind of tools; in part because the supervision 
of the establishment is inadequate, and emphasizes wrong points 
in manufacture; but largely because the establishment is not 
equipped with enough large pieces of specialized machinery, 
located in special shops or units of the manufacturing plant, to 
enable it to meet modern manufacturing conditions. The plant 
needs more money for operative costs, more specialization in 
production, the utilization of present waste products, and an 
efficiency manager to study the business needs, specialize it, 
and speed it up, with a view to saving wastes, increasing the 
rate of output, and greatly increasing the sale value of the man- 
ufactured product in the markets the factory is trying to sup- 
ply. On a proper presentation of the matter to the stockholders 
of any business corporation, it would appeal to them as wise 
to increase the working capital 20 to 25 per cent, if thereby 
the rate of production could be materially increased, the present 
waste in working materials be largely obviated, the value of the 
output probably doubled, and new and profitable markets for 
present waste products found. The school business of Portland 
is, in a sense, a manufactory, doing a three-million-dollar busi- 
ness each year, and trying to prepare future citizens for use- 
fulness and efficiency in life. The taxpayers are the stock- 
holders, represented in the management of the business by a 
board of five school directors. They should apply to the man- 
agement of their educational business principles of efficiency 
similar to those which control in other forms of manufacturing 
business. 



314 SCHOOL SUEVEY EEPOET 



Appendix A 

A SUGGESTED LAW FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE 
PORTLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT 

The following is a suggestion for a new law for the Portland 
school district, based on the needs presented in this report. For 
the reasons for the different recommendations, made in the fol- 
lowing suggested law, the reader is referred back to the different 
chapters of the report itself: 

AN ACT 

For the Creation of Metropolitan School Districts, and Prescribing 
Their Form of Organization and Powers 

Sec. 1. All first-class school districts now existing, which 
have 20,000 or more children of school age, or which may here- 
after come to have such, are hereby declared to be metropolitan 
school districts, and are to be governed under the provisions of 
this act, as follows: 

Sec. 2. For the government of each such metropolitan school 
districts a Board of Education shall be elected by the taxpayers 
of the district. A taxpayer shall be as defined for school elec- 
tions, in Sec. 4089 of Lord's Oregon Laws. One member of 
said Board of Education shall be elected each year, to serve for 
a five-year term. Boards of School Directors for first-class dis- 
tricts, in office at the time of the enactment of this law, shall 
constitute the new Boards of Education, and shall continue to 
serve for the terms for which they were elected or appointed. 
In case a vacancy shall occur in a Board of Education, the Board 
shall appoint to fill the vacancy, the person so appointed to serve 
until the next annual school election, at which time a member 
shall be elected to fill out the unexpired term of the member. 

All elections of members of Boards of Education shall be 
by ballot, on the same day that annual school district meetings 
are held throughout the state, and the provisions of the general 
school laws relating to first-class districts shall apply to such 
elections. Polling places shall be provided by the Board of Ed- 
ucation, at a sufficient number of places throughout the school 
district, and be open from 1 to 6 p. m. At any such annual 
school election. Boards of Education may, by vote, submit any 
question of educational policy or finance to the taxpayers, which 
to them seems wise, for either direction or advice. 

Sec. 3. Boards of Education for each metropolitan district 
shall reorganize each year, at the first regular meeting after 
the election of new members, by electing one of their number as 
president of the board, who shall exercise the usual functions of 
such an officer, and who shall appoint all standing and special 
committees of the board. 

Sec. 4. Boards of Education in such districts shall elect the 
following executive officers: 

1. A Superintendent of Schools; 

2. A Business Manager; 



APPENDIX A. SUGGESTED LAW FOR DISTRICT 315 

3. A Superintendent of Properties; 

4. Superintendent of School Attendance; 

and, subject to the provisions of this act, shall assign to them 
their duties, and shall fix their compensations. Boards shall 
also have power to create, from time to time, such other execu- 
tive departments and such sub-departments as the needs of the 
schools may seem to require. 

Sec. 5. The Superintendent of Schools shall be first elected 
for a one-year term, and thereafter for four-year terms. Each 
new Superintendent elected shall have similar tenure; provided, 
however, that, for cause, the Board may, on thirty days' notice, 
and by a vote of at least four members, terminate their contract 
with the Superintendent of Schools to take effect at the close 
of any school year. His salary shall be as determined by the 
board. 

Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of Boards of Education in met- 
ropolitan districts to determine all large questions of policy; 
to adopt an annual budget of expenditures for the schools; to fix 
salaries of all employees; to approve of all enlargements of the 
work of the schools; to approve all expenses incurred; to pur- 
chase new school sites, and to order new buildings erected; to 
decide upon all enlargements of school sites or buildings; and 
to approve all contracts entered into. It shall, on the other 
hand, be the duty of the chief executive officers of the board to 
execute, under direction, the policies decided upon, and to carry 
out the improvements, changes, or additions ordered made. It 
shall be primarily the work of the Boards of Education to legis- 
late, decide, and direct; the work of the executive officers shall 
be to carry into execution the policies decided upon by the 
Boards of Education. 

Sec. 7. The Superintendent of Schools shall be the chief 
executive officer of the Board of Education, and shall have gen- 
eral co-ordinating authority and oversight over the work of all 
executive officers and other employees of the school district. 
He shall have full responsibilitv for the course of study, the se- 
lection of text-books and supplemental books, and the selection, 
promotion, assignment, transfer, or dismissal of assistant su- 
perintendents, special supervisors, principals, and teachers, the 
board acting in all such matters only on his recommendation. 
In case of a conflict in authoritv between the Superintendent of 
Schools and any executive officer, the Superintendent of Schools 
shall decide, unless the Board of Education shall order otherwise, 
in each case. 

Sec. 8. The Business Manager shall succeed to the general 
functions now exercised by the School Clerk. He shall be elected 
by the Board, who shall determine his tenure and compensation. 
He shall have charge of all business affairs of the school depart- 
ment, subject to the supervision of the Board, or its committees; 
shall make all purchases, approve all bills, and, when ordered 
paid by the Board, draw vouchers for their payment; shall pay 
all employees for services performed; and shall act as Secretary 
of the Board of Education. He shall recommend all employees 
in his department for appointment or dismissal, and may sus- 
pend any such employee, for cause. He shall also be responsible 
for the successful conduct of the business affairs of the school 
department; shall give bonds for the faithful performance of 
his duties, in such reasonable sum as the Board of Education may 



316 SCHOOL SURVEY REPORT 

determine; and the books of his office shall be audited each 
year, on order of the Board of Education. 

Sec. 9. The Boards of Education shall also appoint a Su- 
perintendent of Properties, and determine his tenure and com- 
pensation. The Superintendent of Properties shall have gen- 
eral charge of the erection, repair, and care of all school prop- 
erties, subject to the direction of the board. The school janitors 
shall be under his direction and instruction. He shall recom- 
mend all employees in his department for appointment or dis- 
missal, and may suspend any employee, for cause. 

Sec. 10. The Boards of Education shall also appoint a Su- 
perintendent of School Attendance, and determine his tenure and 
compensation. He shall have charge of the enforcement of the 
compulsory-education law, and those parts of child-labor law 
for which attendance officers are responsible; the general out- 
of -school supervision of incorrigible and delinquent children; 
and the taking and care of the school-census records of the 
district. 

Sec. 11. The Boards of Education shall have four regular 
standing committees, each consisting of two members and the 
president of the board, as follows: 

1. Financial affairs; 

2. Buildings and sites; 

3. Educational affairs; 

4. Legal affairs. 

These committees shall consider such matters of policy, finance, 
and procedure as may be referred to them. Special committees 
may be created, for special purposes, from time to time, as 
necessities of administration seem to require. 

Sec. 12. Boards of Education in metropolitan districts shall 
prepare, each year, with the assistance of their executive offi- 
cers, a budget of expenses for all departments of the school 
system, for the ensuing year, and approve the same. They shall 
estimate the amount to be received from the state and county 
school funds, sales of properties, or any other sources of in- 
come, and shall then estimate the balance needed for each of 
the following funds, viz.: 

1. Outlays Fund: To cover the cost of new buildings, 

grounds, and equipment. 

2. Maintenance Fund: To cover the cost for salaries, main- 

tenance, supplies, administration, and contingent ex- 
penses. 

On approval of the annual budget by the Board of Education, 
the board shall then certify the total amounts, only, for each 
of the above funds to the authorities whose duty it is to levy 
the school taxes for the district, and said authorities shall then 
levy a rate on the assessed valuation of the district which will 
produce the amount so certified; provided, that the same shall 
not exceed a rate of four mills for the outlays fund, or five mills 
for the maintenance fund; provided, further, that, upon a state- 
ment of need, the taxpayers voting for school board members at 
the annual school election may be asked by the Board of Educa- 
tion to approve of a tax levy up to six mills for the maintenance 
fund. If so approved bv a majority of those voting, the Board 
of Education may certify for levy a tax for the maintenance 
fund up to six mills, and the same shall be levied as directed. 



APPENDIX A. SUGGESTED LAW FOR DISTRICT 317 

Sec. 13. Boards of Education in metropolitan districts shall 
establish standards for the employment and pay of teachers, 
principals, and other members of the educational service. All 
such persons, when first employed, shall serve such a proba- 
tionary period, not exceeding three years, as may be determined, 
after which they shall be regarded as on indeterminate contract. 
All persons employed on indeterminate contract shall be con- 
sidered as permanently employed, unless the Board of Education 
shall notify such persons, in writing, not later than May 15, of 
any year, that the Board of Education desires to terminate the 
contract at the close of the school year, for causes stated in the 
notice. For the sufficiency of the reasons for so terminating a 
contract with any employee, Boards of Education shall be the 
sole judges. 

Sec. 14. Boards of Education in districts of the metropolitan 
class, hereby created, may create a board of examiners and ex- 
amine their own teachers, as now provided for cities of the first 
class, or they may vote to accept the county and state teachers' 
certificates instead, and discontinue their boards of examiners. 

Sec. 15. Boards of Education in metropolitan districts shall 
have power to establish and maintain kindergartens, elementary 
schools, intermediate schools, high schools of different kinds, 
manual training schools, vocational schools, schools of trades, 
neighborhood schools, truant schools, schools for the education 
of special classes of any kind, evening schools, vacation schools, 
playgrounds, lecture courses, and such other types of educational 
agencies or schools as may to them seem desirable to meet the 
peculiar needs of such cities; to fix the days of the year and 
the hours of the day when such schools and other educational 
agencies may be open or in session; to admit to such schools, in 
addition to the persons now provided for by law, such other 
persons as they may deem desirable; and to prescribe the text- 
books and courses of study for the use of such schools, and to 
change the same, all such prescriptions and changes to be on the 
recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools; provided, 
that any text-book once adopted and in use shall not be changed 
oftener than once in four years; and provided, further, that the 
taxpayers of any metropolitan district mav. by vote, authorize 
the Board of Education to provide free text-books for any or all 
schools maintained. 

Sec. 16. Boards of Education in metropolitan districts shall 
provide for the taking of a detailed school census of their dis- 
tricts, by years and sex, and by residence and school attendance, 
and shall provide for keeping such as accurate as may be, with 
a view to knowing fully the educational needs of the district and 
the full enforcement of all laws relating to school attendance, 
child labor, or juvenile delinquency. 

Sec. 17. The Boards of Education for such metropolitan 
districts shall, in all matters not specifically provided for in this 
act, be controlled and subject to the general school laws relating 
to cities of the first class, or the general school laws of the state; 
provided, however, that all acts or parts of acts in conflict with 
anv of the provisions of this act are hereby repealed, in so far 
as they relate to metropolitan districts. 







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